Alumni will receive a solicitation later this week asking for donations for student activities. The solicitation will allow alumni who have graduated in the past 10 years to donate money to the student activities endowment or to earmark funds to specific student clubs and organizations.
Previously, alumni who wanted to donate to student activities through the Georgetown Annual Fund could only do so by checking a box labeled “other” on the contribution and writing in student activities.
The solicitation will consist of three parts, a solicitation letter, a goal letter signed by three alumni and a list of all student clubs recognized by the University.
“I suspect that within 10 days of the mailing, we could potentially get responses,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said he did not know how successful the solicitation would be. He said the University has never attempted to solicit donations for student activities.
Gonzalez said that in approximately six to seven weeks the donations earmarked for clubs will be transferred to the clubs specified.
Donations earmarked for the student activities endowment will be invested by Earnest Porta, Director of Finance and Investment.
“I think the solicitation allows for the best of both worlds,” said Marty LaFalce (CAS ‘03), sophomore GUSA representative and co-author of the funding proposal that allowed for the solicitation.
“We are able to ask donors to contribute to the student activities endowment that will benefit student activities in the long term. We are also giving them the option of making donations to the group of their choice for current use expenditures which will benefit groups in the short term,” LaFalce said.
If the solicitation brings in substantial donations in coming years, student activities could eventually become self-sufficient, according to LaFalce.
