Big Gifts Make the Headlines, but Small Gifts are the Lifeblood of CAS
In the 2007-08 academic year, there were more than 5,600 gifts to the College of less than $5,000. These added up to $1.1 million in support for CAS departments and programs.
Nearly two-thirds of these gifts were less than $100, and more than 90% were $500 or less.
The vast majority of these contributions (4,376 of them) came from alumni, the rest from friends, parents, corporations and foundations.
How does alumni giving break down by class? As you might expect, alums age 40 and older are making the greatest number of gifts, but younger alumni also made a very strong showing in their total number of donations.
Average gift amount -- not surprisingly -- also tends to be higher for alums over 40. Alumni from the 1970s, for instance, gave an average of $207 while alumni from the 1990s gave an average of $91.
Because alumni from the 1970s also made the largest number of donations, their collective contributions made a significant impact: their gifts added up to almost $225,000, or nearly a quarter of the $1.1 million total.
So what can your gift of $100, $200 or more support? Here are just a few examples of the practical impact of gifts of $1,000 or less:
$100 will support a student in purchasing textbooks
$400 will fund a graduate student's travel to a conference to present their research
$500 will establish you as a member of the Dean's Fund, which supports the Dean's highest-priority projects
$1,000 will fund a scholarship for an undergraduate student in any CAS department
You can also support the general fund of any CAS department with a gift of any size. See the inside front cover of Cascade for a full list of CAS departments.
Can't decide where you'd like your support to go? We invite you to come to campus to take a tour of the many fascinating and innovative facilities within the College. A few examples:
• The underground Integrative Science Complex
• The InfoGraphics Lab
• The Condon Fossil Collection
• The renovated Robinson Theater
• The zebrafish lab
• The human physiology environmental chamber
Let us know what you're interested in, and we'll arrange a custom tour! Contact Jane Gary in the CAS office of development, (541) 346-3951, jgary@cas.uoregon.edu.
Learn about ongoing research in human physiology.
