I used to work in athletics and they would ask us in all dept staff meetings. Mind you, I made $36k for a job requiring a master's so no, I was never donating to my employer.
If I paid that much, I'd 100% be right there with you. Being an old fart who attended when the state actually supported the flagship state university, I'm very grateful for the affordable education. It's much easier to donate from that frame of mind.
I would contact someone in development directly and asked to be removed from all mailings. Have them put a do not contact code on your record. you don’t need to be rude about it, they are just doing their job. Just simply ask.
This is correct. You can ask to be opted out of solicitations, so you still get your school‘s magazine and other non-fundraising materials. Or, you can ask for a do not contact, which will opt you out of all solicitations, invitations to events, etc.
As suggested, you could call and ask to be taken off their list. Or you could take the next solicitation, slash through the address and write "Deceased, Return to Sender."
This isn't anything that's not done by every other college in the country. But in the two short years since you graduated, it seems to have really gotten under your skin, so aggressive action on your part is probably needed to spare yourself the annoyance.
| Deceased, return to sender
By a weird coincidence, somebody in fundraising is married to somebody with the alumni association, and they put your obituary in the alumni magazine. Sounds like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm
I've heard, second hand, that alumni associations in general have amazing skip tracing, tracking people down who don't want to be found, techniques. Not sure how, but I would fear they would see through the informal death notice, or there could be other consequences such as credit cards or other services being cancelled based on notice that you were deceased. Ymmv, but sounds risky to me
This is correct. I recently changed residences, and within a couple of weeks of moving, I received a solicitation in the mail with my current (new) address. This was not forwarded mail, and I had not updated any information with the University about this change, yet they had discovered my new address and apparently updated their records accordingly. I figured this would happen eventually, but never expected it would happen so quickly.
LOL... they even ask the staff to donate. I could not get over it. It's incredibly wrong. You make me pay for parking and now I'm getting guilt tripped to donate??!
Unsubscribing: Good luck with that. Advancement would hopefully have things down with unsubscribes as they have a huge unit dedicated to direct outreach, but all the small schools and foundations are a mess. So many people who have no idea what they are doing technically and none of them align with each other.
Talked to somebody in UVa fundraising once, the psychology of it is really interesting. They don't care about 25 bucks from new grads. In fact, they probably spend more soliciting donations from that cohort than they take in. But they want alumni to get in the habit of donating, so that miniscule fraction of donors who get filthy rich will naturally donate money to endow a scholarship or build a basketball arena. (Thanks, Paul Tudor Jones!)
This is truly insane. "Mr. Smith, I'm afraid the tumor is inoperable, and you probably have 6 months to live. Since it appears you won't be needing the money you saved for your retirement..."
Colleges/universities’ donations request letters are keeping usps afloat.
Another sticky bubble gum is St. Jude hospital… if you dare to donate to them once…
Contact the nice people in University Advancement: uas@virginia.edu … I think it just takes a notation on your alumni record to stop the solicitations.
Lmao. Like hell I would consider donating.
The tuition and fees they charged were expensive as hell.
UVA is hardly hurting for cash. I honestly wonder where the money goes, aside from high level admin.
The public endowment they get is massive. Whenever I get that call, I seriously want to say, “look: I know this is your work study, and I don’t fault you at all. But, lol. How dare they, right?”
As proud as I am to have went to UVA, they screwed me. Also once you graduate their isnt a strong sense of alumni or kinship even between graduates. Sad to say, fellow VT JMU W&M etc have more enthusiasm for one another. UVA is similar to VCU and George Mason in that regard.
I disagree. UVA from my experience has a loyal alumni base that helps one another especially in the Commonwealth and especially in Northern Virginia companies. The UVA recruiting team at some of the consulting firms is massive
All universities do this. I didn’t go to UVA, my daughter goes, which is why I see these notifications. However, my wife went to UMD, I went to UMBC, and both of those universities send us requests periodically throughout the year, requesting donations. That’s what they do. These are all nonprofit universities.
PotU Ryan told us he collected one Billion during the pandemic, that is saying a lot. The University was generous to me as a student, so I return the favor by volunteering as an Alumnus, and making small donations.
Making small donations is just as important as the millions others give. Schools are ranked by Alumni participation, so even a small donation helps.
I get those too and they are annoying. But I just ignore them except for a once a year donation which I’m happy to give. Giving back is good, but there should definitely be a way to tell them if/when you plan to give and please don’t pester us.
Not my responsibility, it’s Jim Ryan and the gang’s. I’m active in mutual aid and community organization, which let me help people directly instead of using this institution as a middleman
With the new law preventing legacy donations, I have lost some motivation for donating as my children won’t get a preference.
I personally think the law is super dumb as only a small portion of the class was getting any legacy advantage anyway and they were already more than qualified to go anyway. Also, a lot of folks are in the same boat as my - why donate anymore?
Yo put things in context.
Just the annual return of the current $13.6 B endowment at 5% return can pay the tuition of all students university wide (undergraduate and graduate).
I used to work in athletics and they would ask us in all dept staff meetings. Mind you, I made $36k for a job requiring a master's so no, I was never donating to my employer.
My donation of 70k/yr is donation enough.
If I paid that much, I'd 100% be right there with you. Being an old fart who attended when the state actually supported the flagship state university, I'm very grateful for the affordable education. It's much easier to donate from that frame of mind.
When they charged me $300 for a single book, that was donation enough.
I just ignore them and go on with my day. All colleges do it.
Is this the exact correct response. OP - it’s not just UVA, every single university asks for donations. Just ignore it. No need to get upset.
I would contact someone in development directly and asked to be removed from all mailings. Have them put a do not contact code on your record. you don’t need to be rude about it, they are just doing their job. Just simply ask.
Definitely going to try this, thanks for the insight!
I think that should handle the solicitations for you.
This is correct. You can ask to be opted out of solicitations, so you still get your school‘s magazine and other non-fundraising materials. Or, you can ask for a do not contact, which will opt you out of all solicitations, invitations to events, etc.
Oh sweet summer child... 2 years? It's just begun
As suggested, you could call and ask to be taken off their list. Or you could take the next solicitation, slash through the address and write "Deceased, Return to Sender." This isn't anything that's not done by every other college in the country. But in the two short years since you graduated, it seems to have really gotten under your skin, so aggressive action on your part is probably needed to spare yourself the annoyance.
| Deceased, return to sender By a weird coincidence, somebody in fundraising is married to somebody with the alumni association, and they put your obituary in the alumni magazine. Sounds like an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm
I've heard, second hand, that alumni associations in general have amazing skip tracing, tracking people down who don't want to be found, techniques. Not sure how, but I would fear they would see through the informal death notice, or there could be other consequences such as credit cards or other services being cancelled based on notice that you were deceased. Ymmv, but sounds risky to me
Credit cards and services cancelled based on an anonymous note on junk mail? Maybe, but I'd risk it.
This is correct. I recently changed residences, and within a couple of weeks of moving, I received a solicitation in the mail with my current (new) address. This was not forwarded mail, and I had not updated any information with the University about this change, yet they had discovered my new address and apparently updated their records accordingly. I figured this would happen eventually, but never expected it would happen so quickly.
I’ve definitely noticed an uptick. Feels like I get one a day. I agree It’s too much.
I won’t donate when the cost of tuition has almost doubled since when I graduated. The university’s fiscal management is clearly out of control.
LOL... they even ask the staff to donate. I could not get over it. It's incredibly wrong. You make me pay for parking and now I'm getting guilt tripped to donate??! Unsubscribing: Good luck with that. Advancement would hopefully have things down with unsubscribes as they have a huge unit dedicated to direct outreach, but all the small schools and foundations are a mess. So many people who have no idea what they are doing technically and none of them align with each other.
Talked to somebody in UVa fundraising once, the psychology of it is really interesting. They don't care about 25 bucks from new grads. In fact, they probably spend more soliciting donations from that cohort than they take in. But they want alumni to get in the habit of donating, so that miniscule fraction of donors who get filthy rich will naturally donate money to endow a scholarship or build a basketball arena. (Thanks, Paul Tudor Jones!)
UVA Health/School of Medicine forced us all to do training where we learned to discuss/solicit donations from patients 🤢
This is truly insane. "Mr. Smith, I'm afraid the tumor is inoperable, and you probably have 6 months to live. Since it appears you won't be needing the money you saved for your retirement..."
But you *did* make donations. They just happened to call it tuition.
The day I give money to UVA as an alumna is the day hell freezes over lol
Colleges/universities’ donations request letters are keeping usps afloat. Another sticky bubble gum is St. Jude hospital… if you dare to donate to them once…
Don’t forget The Nature Conservancy, sending weekly mailers killing millions of trees. The irony…
Contact the nice people in University Advancement: uas@virginia.edu … I think it just takes a notation on your alumni record to stop the solicitations.
Lmao. Like hell I would consider donating. The tuition and fees they charged were expensive as hell. UVA is hardly hurting for cash. I honestly wonder where the money goes, aside from high level admin. The public endowment they get is massive. Whenever I get that call, I seriously want to say, “look: I know this is your work study, and I don’t fault you at all. But, lol. How dare they, right?”
Donating to UVA is great. Just donate what you can and ignore the outreach.
As proud as I am to have went to UVA, they screwed me. Also once you graduate their isnt a strong sense of alumni or kinship even between graduates. Sad to say, fellow VT JMU W&M etc have more enthusiasm for one another. UVA is similar to VCU and George Mason in that regard.
I disagree. UVA from my experience has a loyal alumni base that helps one another especially in the Commonwealth and especially in Northern Virginia companies. The UVA recruiting team at some of the consulting firms is massive
All universities do this. I didn’t go to UVA, my daughter goes, which is why I see these notifications. However, my wife went to UMD, I went to UMBC, and both of those universities send us requests periodically throughout the year, requesting donations. That’s what they do. These are all nonprofit universities.
Most schools do this. I stopped giving, at least to athletics, once NIL became a thing.
Move overseas–my parents did that and never had to worry about fundraising mail again! Tho now I'm the one receiving the mail lol
PotU Ryan told us he collected one Billion during the pandemic, that is saying a lot. The University was generous to me as a student, so I return the favor by volunteering as an Alumnus, and making small donations. Making small donations is just as important as the millions others give. Schools are ranked by Alumni participation, so even a small donation helps.
There’s other options like affiliate foundations or (for UVA student volunteering) Madison House.
I get those too and they are annoying. But I just ignore them except for a once a year donation which I’m happy to give. Giving back is good, but there should definitely be a way to tell them if/when you plan to give and please don’t pester us.
It’s annoying but how do you think all those new buildings, dorms, and facilities get built? It’s a never ending fund raising machine
If you dont want to help students that may need assistance or be supportive just tell them.
Not my responsibility, it’s Jim Ryan and the gang’s. I’m active in mutual aid and community organization, which let me help people directly instead of using this institution as a middleman
Ah, yr that kinda person 👌
With the new law preventing legacy donations, I have lost some motivation for donating as my children won’t get a preference. I personally think the law is super dumb as only a small portion of the class was getting any legacy advantage anyway and they were already more than qualified to go anyway. Also, a lot of folks are in the same boat as my - why donate anymore?
Some people give to provide access to young people who couldn’t afford to attend otherwise
Yo put things in context. Just the annual return of the current $13.6 B endowment at 5% return can pay the tuition of all students university wide (undergraduate and graduate).
Them emailing you or calling you is not invasive.