The class of 2008 gave $67,732 to the University in the past year and set a record for participation in a class gift, according to the Annual Fund. The gift included President Ruth Simmons' $20,008 donation, an anonymous donor's $25,000 challenge gift and nearly $23,000 from the 1,542 seniors - the "Best Class Ever," according to its campaign slogan.
The all-student Senior Class Gift Committee took a different approach to promoting the senior gift, kicking off the campaign for donations in the fall semester instead of in the spring, as had been done traditionally, said Johanna Corcoran, assistant director for student programs.
"While most of the gifts came in the spring, the seniors continuously heard about it and considered giving from early on in the year," gift committee Co-Chair Brittany Locke '08 wrote in an e-mail.
"We started off faster than any other class in history," Gordy Pels '08, the other co-chair, wrote in an e-mail.
Simmons' donation also "galvanized" the campaign, Corcoran said. The president had traditionally given amounts corresponding to the year of graduation - $2,005 for the class of 2005, for example. In 2007, she added a zero - to $20,007, and once again adhered to that pattern.
Additionally, an anonymous donor from the class of 1972 submitted a challenge to the seniors: if 72 percent of the class contributed to the class gift, this donor would contribute $25,000. According to Corcoran, the challenge succeeded in motivating the students. Breaking the class of 2005's record of 68 percent, the class of 2008 exactly met the participation goal.
An increase of "four percentage points (over the previous class) is quite a feat," Corcoran said.
Locke wrote that the success of the gift "reflects how much the class of 2008 loved Brown and how much we appreciated everything that the school has done for us over the previous four years."
The class gift was a boost to the Annual Fund, which in total brought in a record $35.1 million from over 33,000 donors. The Parents' Annual Fund led the Ivy League, according to its Web site, with $4.2 million.
Alumni with reunion years in 2008 also contributed heavily, with the classes of 3's and 8's raising $11.3 million for the Annual Fund. The 1764 Society, which is composed of regular donors to the Annual Fund, grew to 11,137 members in 2008, an increase of 13 percent.
Seeing their donations used immediately to support the University's operational budget for the next year is an incentive for donors, Corcoran said. The money from the Annual Fund "addresses the highest needs of the university," she said, going towards programs such as the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Undergraduate and Teaching Research Assistantships, seminars and academic journal subscriptions for libraries.
The class of 2009's Senior Class Gift Committee will meet in early October to start formulating plans to raise money, Corcoran said.
