In the competitive marketplace of higher education, college and university alumni are increasingly called on to support their institutions in multiple ways: political advocacy, volunteerism, and charitable giving. Drawing on alumni survey data gathered from a large research extensive university, we employ a multinomial logistic regression model to distinguish characteristics of inactive alumni from those who give, volunteer, or give and volunteer at their alma mater. Economic, social exchange, expectancy, and investment theories shed light on lifecycles, attitudes, and lifestyles associated with alumni giving and voluntary support for higher education.
In the competitive marketplace of higher education, colleges and university leaders increasingly rely on the influence and service of their alumni to further institutional goals. Because of their demonstrated financial commitment to the institution, alumni donors are often enlisted to serve important roles as volunteers and political advocates. Using binomial logistic regression, this study examines a large sample of alumni donors from a large doctoral/research extensive university to predict donors who are most likely volunteer at the institution (via advisory board service, political advocacy, alumni club support). The study suggests that volunteering among alumni donors is predicted by capacity variables related to gender, residence, and overall civic engagement. Inclination to volunteer is associated with the quality of academic experience while an undergraduate student, beliefs about alumni volunteer roles, and number of degrees earned at the institution.
As the relative level of public support for higher education declines, colleges and universities aim to maximize alumni-giving to keep their programs competitive. Anchored in a utility maximization framework, this study employs the classification and regression tree methodology to examine characteristics of alumni donors and non-donors at a research-extensive university in the United States. The study suggests that levels of giving relates to household income, religious background, degree and venue in which the alum keeps in touch with the campus, alumni beliefs about institutional needs, and the number of institutions competing for alumni gift dollars. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.alumni, philanthrophy, methodology,
government-led reform agenda. First was the fast-growing number of students in higher education, which brought more public spending and an attendant demand for greater institutional responsiveness to consumer interests. The second phase was the rise of the marketoriented state and the expectation that higher education would also become responsive to markets. The third phase was the emergence of the Bologna Process and its goal of united European higher education around the three poles of education, research, and innovation. This emergent knowledge triangle produced three policy logics: the search for standards in higher education, efforts to concentrate research, and the stimulation of networks to foster innovation. Tensions have inevitably arisen between the research and innovation agendas and the research and education agendas, as well as between institutional autonomy, national control, and supranational control. (65 ref)-
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