muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Sept 21, 2015 10:29:41 GMT -5
Do you guys get these kind of calls? I got my first one today and I was kind of snarky I didn't mean to be but the girl asked if she could put me down for $250 to pay for scholarships, etc. I replied "I am not going to make ANY financial obligation based on a phone call". So, she repeated what she was saying about "keeping the school updated, giving scholarships to students, etc" then asked if I would commit to $50. I repeated that I "wouldn't make ANY financial obligation based on a phone call". She said she understood and asked if my contact info was all up to date. I confirmed it was and then.... She asked if she could put me down for $25. This is the point where I got snarky. I told her that I said I wouldn't make any commitment based on a phone call twice so asking me a third time is not appreciated. I said I understood she was just trying to get funds but if someone says no twice, continuing to ask them over and over again is not appropriate. How do you guys respond to these calls? FWIW, I just graduated a year ago. Most of my classmates have ~$200k in student loans. She kept taking about how ~97% of students get financial aid because of "alumni donations". As someone who got no financial aid through the school, continuing to repeat that statistic is kind of irritating. My aid came from the federal govt (my military service), otherwise I would have gotten a fat nuthin. My university it was a requirement for a required class to work the phonathon for 3 nights. It blew. I hated it. However, I think we said " even $10 is helpful ". I can't imagine someone being so brazen as to say can I put you down for $250. I would be pissy too. I haven't gotten any phone calls since my first year out of school.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Sept 21, 2015 10:45:04 GMT -5
LOL!
For some reason, the alumni association found me right after I got sick. At that point, I was looking at massive hospital bills and wasn't quite sure of what my disability income would be as it was all up in the air.
When I got the phone call, they asked me for money and I turned it around (after looking at thousands in medical bills) and suggested that perhaps they should send ME money. It was the last phone call I got from them.
FWIW.....I got NO financial aid whatsoever.
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murphath
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Post by murphath on Sept 21, 2015 10:46:52 GMT -5
Since we have donated to our school (San Diego State), we receive an annual appeal letter. If you are concerned that the $$ is going to go to the highly coompensated President, you can always specify where/how you want the $$ spent. As a French major, my donation is earmarked for that department and DH's for the Political Science/International Relations department. I did receive a small scholarship (Calif. State scholarship way back when) and also worked on campus while in school. Although I did not receive any direct financial aid from SDSU, I like to give back. I had a great time in college and their French department was fabulous. Also, I met my DH in the International Relations lab when I worked for one of their professors. Feel like we do owe them for that bit of good fortune. I do understand how annoying it can be to constantly be asked for money. We never say no to kids trying to sell something for either their sports team or school. And there are certain charities we support. I notice they must sell our address because we have begun to receive requests from many others. I just rip up the envelopes and toss them in the recycling.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Sept 21, 2015 12:57:09 GMT -5
I always hang up on sales calls.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 13:21:19 GMT -5
I was REALLY annoyed when one charity called asking for money a few months after I sent them a large check. I never gave them my phone number.
I believe in what they do but now my donations come from my Fidelity Charitable account. I tell Fidelity not to name me as the donor. I still get the tax deduction but they can't find me!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 13:41:34 GMT -5
I appreciate that if someone doesn't want to be contacted by phone, then the school or other organization should honor that. I also don't appreciate fund raising phone calls at 9:30 pm. I do though understand the need to raise funds at colleges. Anyone that says they won't give because they did not receive any financial assistance is wrong for nearly every school. Even if you pay the full freight tuition, you received a discount off of the actual cost to deliver your education. State schools get donations from alums and others as well as tax money that still kept your actual tuition below the costs of delivering the education. Private schools also fund a significant portion of their operations from donations and endowment income. That endowment also mostly came from alumni donations. Those alumni that came before you helped pay the costs of your and my education and I think we should all do the same for those that come after us. Whether it is the $10 or when you can afford it the new building on campus, every amount counts. When foundations decide whether to make grants to colleges, one of the first statistics that they look at is the % of alumni donating to the college - they are more concerned with the % than the amount.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2015 16:09:17 GMT -5
My university was founded in 1819 and they decided it would be a great fund-raiser if every alum donated $18.19. They even noted that it would likely increase their stats about % of alumni who donate, which would in turn increase their rankings in college ratings. (Apparently extent of alumni giving is one metric.) Way to game the system, huh? And everyone they flush out of the woodwork with a donation of "only" $18.19 is fresh meat for the next fund-raiser.
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Post by mojothehelpermonkey on Sept 21, 2015 17:58:04 GMT -5
Oh man, so many memories haha. This was my work-study job when I was an undergrad. In addition to my ~30hr/wk part time restaurant job, I worked in our 'alumni call center' about 12hrs/wk. One of the hardest jobs I have ever worked. I remember dreading getting aassigned to the 'recent alumni' list for the night- calling recent grads (likely with lots of student loans from my private school)- got lots of people saying horrible things to me- but I totally understood why. I think that my undergrad program is horribly overpriced (like many other programs) due to a variety of reasons- but partially out of sympathy for those student callers and partially because I got a fair amount of financial assistance for my studies I generally give a few bucks. And I spent a couple minutes talking to then because I can still remember how nice it was to have a pleasant conversation among the many people hanging up on me or telling me where to put my phone haha. It has become harder now that my wife and I have 5 degrees (and counting) from 3 different schools-but 5min and $10-25/yr per school is worth it to me. I had this job in college too. It paid better than my lab job, but I still only lasted a few weeks. One time I got a list of the parents of kids who had just graduated. Most just complained about us asking for money after they had already paid 6+ figures, but one guy yelled at me because his kid didn't get into med school. Another time, I was just calling to thank people and wasn't even supposed to ask for more money, but most people still yelled at me and/or hung up.
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Post by mojothehelpermonkey on Sept 21, 2015 18:11:04 GMT -5
Does anyone else's school do thank you calls? I was in a service group in underside, and once per semester we were supposed to call recent donors just to thank them for their donation, tell them what kinds of new things were going on around campus, and answer any questions they had. We in no way solicited money/additional donations, so while I occasionally had a grumpy conversation with someone who thought I was calling to ask for more money, usually it was a blast and most people loved the thank you call. I especially loved talking to the people who had graduated 40+ years ago and hearing them reminisce about their college days. The thank you calls that did not hang up on me were pretty fun. I could tell that those people had been donating for years and knew the routine. It seemed like a couple of them looked forward to the call so they could chat about the good old days.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Sept 21, 2015 20:05:20 GMT -5
Because over 1/2 of my undergraduate degree was paid for by grants and scholarships from the private college, I feel I can never give them back what I earned because of that education.
However, I call them when I wish to make a donation and designate where it goes.
Do the same for my grad school.
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swamp
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THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!!!!!!!
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Post by swamp on Sept 22, 2015 12:06:10 GMT -5
I got a very generous scholarship fro my college. I'm paying it forward so someone else can have the opportunity I did. I don't answer the phone calls though. I'm not giving more.
I don't give to my law school. I paid the close to the full sticker price.
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Ombud
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Post by Ombud on Sept 24, 2015 20:17:06 GMT -5
I give to UC BERKELEY (my BA) but think I should give to SFSU (another of mine & now GS1's) as well as CSUDH (my master's). Not to CSU East Bay. (DS's school) -- gave them enough checks
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tallguy
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Post by tallguy on Sept 24, 2015 21:07:58 GMT -5
I still get them occasionally. I have never donated.
Generally, I respond the same way I do to everyone else who calls:
"Is this going to be a fundraising call? I'm sorry, I won't be able to help and I would appreciate it if you would take my number off of your call list. Thank you."
I used to do the, "I'm sorry, I never do business with anyone who bothers me at my home" but I've pretty much retired that one.
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iono1
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Post by iono1 on Sept 25, 2015 12:26:06 GMT -5
I went to a State of NY college 40 years ago and they call me every year even though I may have contributed once in 40 years. I just tell them I'm not contributing this year & they don't push it. My guess is the private institutions that cost big $ have a harder push than a SUNY College. Back in the 1970s, my whole 4 years, including room & board cost about $8,000 total.
PS: I'm a lot nicer to the students trying to get me to contribute to a school I went to than some telemarketer who is calling me even though I'm registered with Do Not Call. Usually I end up cursing at them & tell them they're criminals for violating the law by calling me. Last week I got a woman who said that I don't have to curse & my initial response was "Yes, I do, you're bothering me"
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msgumby
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Post by msgumby on Sept 25, 2015 12:49:35 GMT -5
We get them on occasion (from grad school, not undergrad) and have never given money. I would actually consider giving money to my undergrad school, but when we are done having kids. The funniest was we got our first phone call for DH while he was still enrolled in school. He was in a PhD program where you had to complete a masters before starting the PhD. So he graduated with his masters, but was still enrolled with a tuition of 30K/year for his PhD program (he had a teaching assistant job at that point, so we weren't paying the full 30K). About 2 months after graduating with his masters, I got the phone call asking for him to donate money. I just laughed and said they may want to check their alumni list to see who was actually still enrolled before making those kinds of phone calls. The good news is they pulled him from the list and he never got calls again. I get calls for me all the time, but I have their phone number stored on my cell so I know not to answer.
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jptheplanner
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Post by jptheplanner on Sept 25, 2015 13:47:47 GMT -5
I give to UC Berkeley. I couldn't have gotten a college education without their support - and now they get less and less from the state. I do direct my funds when I give though.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Sept 25, 2015 16:53:37 GMT -5
I appreciate that if someone doesn't want to be contacted by phone, then the school or other organization should honor that. I also don't appreciate fund raising phone calls at 9:30 pm. I do though understand the need to raise funds at colleges. Anyone that says they won't give because they did not receive any financial assistance is wrong for nearly every school. Even if you pay the full freight tuition, you received a discount off of the actual cost to deliver your education. State schools get donations from alums and others as well as tax money that still kept your actual tuition below the costs of delivering the education. Private schools also fund a significant portion of their operations from donations and endowment income. That endowment also mostly came from alumni donations. Those alumni that came before you helped pay the costs of your and my education and I think we should all do the same for those that come after us. Whether it is the $10 or when you can afford it the new building on campus, every amount counts. When foundations decide whether to make grants to colleges, one of the first statistics that they look at is the % of alumni donating to the college - they are more concerned with the % than the amount. While I agree with the general theme of your comments, there are some things that many college and universities are doing with our money that I have a problem with. My alma mater, a state university, decided it was appropriate to build four mobile science labs at a cost of $1,400,000 to promote enrollment at that campus. This cost was the cost in excess of donations to this project. And enough to pay a full year of tuition, fees, and lving expenses for 100 students. Another recent trend has been to admit almost anyone who fills out an application to public universities. Regardless of whether they have the ability to do the work or not. The local newspaper reports that at our local campus of the state university, 40% of all students are in remedial programs because they are not capable of doing college level work. A friend who recently retired from that institution said that the primary reason for her early retirement was that she couldn't stand to continue to hand hold all of the students in her professional degree program who weren't able to do the work. It appears that part of the high cost of a college education these days is that colleges are doing the functional equivalent of taking a Smart for Two and trying to upgrade it so it will be competetive at Indy. In the process, they devalue a college education by pushing marginally capable students through their programs. I'm all for education for everyone. But, let's match the educational investment and educational program with the ability. Not push everyone through the most expensive programs regardless of their ability to benefit from the investment.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Sept 26, 2015 21:54:26 GMT -5
I get that they are trained to keep asking for lower and lower amounts, because while you'll almost certainly say no to $500, you might give $25. They know they are probably going to get yelled at anyway, so what is one more request.
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bobosensei
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Post by bobosensei on Sept 27, 2015 10:22:27 GMT -5
I had this job in college too. It paid better than my lab job, but I still only lasted a few weeks. One time I got a list of the parents of kids who had just graduated. Most just complained about us asking for money after they had already paid 6+ figures, but one guy yelled at me because his kid didn't get into med school. Another time, I was just calling to thank people and wasn't even supposed to ask for more money, but most people still yelled at me and/or hung up. People are totally crazy. Way to displace their anger and personal issues on someone who is totally not part of their so called problems! And I don't get why recent graduates need to be nasty about not donating. I don't care if they do have students loans. I had them too. I donated a little while I was young and broke $20.04 which is what they first starting asking when I graduated in 2004. And I gave that much to a special fund that was started when a friend of mine and fellow alum died at age a few years ago.
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