Comments on: Dear Nonprofiteer, Boola moolah?

By: Nonprofiteer

Nonprofiteer — Thu, 03 May 2007 14:10:44 +0000

I don’t see that “concerted resistance” from alumni will or would make a rich institution change its ways: money talks, lack of money is silent. But your point is well-taken that access (to the value of an Ivy education) is actually more in the hands of the school than the alumni, so that’s not much of a reason to give. Finally you’re left with naked gratitude–not the worst motive, but not necessarily the best, either. O’Hara’s suggestion of donating to other colleges has some merit, but it’s hard to imagine what non-Ivy school could provide the access that’s the sine qua non of an Ivy education. Note that I’m not claiming Ivy educations are superior–just that the perception of their superiority is so overwhelming that few schools are in the position to “develop on their own campuses the specific features” that make them valuable, because those features are to such a great extent reputational.
See the comment to “Meditations of the Idle Rich” for some thoughts profounder than these about what to do with one’s charity. If as the commenter says nothing matters but to change the world, then it’s time to stop giving to Ivy altogether.

By: R.J. O'Hara

R.J. O'Hara — Thu, 03 May 2007 13:12:20 +0000

Another excellent choice, rather than donating to an already-wealthy institution, would be to donate to those universities that are working hard to develop on their own campuses the specific features that make many Ivy League schools so good for undergraduates: http://collegiateway.org

By: Anita Bernstein

Anita Bernstein — Thu, 03 May 2007 11:31:11 +0000

Very rewarding post today as always. But I don’t understand your analysis of Checkbook Poised’s motives: to express gratitude, and to ensure that other students in the future can benefit from access, I think you say.

I get the first motive, but not the second. Isn’t this some kind of fatcat school that’s resisting the Princeton tuition abatement idea? If it’s oozing more endowment income than it knows how to spend, why does it need more donations from alumni? I thought the writer was suggesting the opposite belief: i.e. that only some kind of concerted resistance by alumni would influence governance to make the school more accessible.