The Life Cycle of Alumni Donations

Abstract

It is common knowledge that “old grads” are more generous than young alumni and that donations are higher for reunion-year classes than for others, but what is the quantitative impact of these factors? This paper studies life cycle and reunion-year effects on participation rates and gift size using a 73,000-gift sample over a ten-year period to a small state university. The author estimates time patterns of the life cycles by means of regression equations, whose potential use he demonstrates by simulations.