The Effects of Current Student Satisfaction on Future Alumni Donations.

Background: Studies on alumni giving have revealed that satisfaction with their educational experience is a key factor, and the push to make alumni into donors should start well before the students graduate. Unfortunately, satisfaction is an ambiguous and subjective concept that can be difficult to quantify. For these reasons, it may be beneficial to colleges of optometry to understand what aspects of the student experience weigh most heavily on their overall satisfaction and likelihood to donate back to their institutions. This project attempted to isolate specific characteristics of the student experience that may make them more likely to donate as alumni. Methods: Current fourth year optometry students from member schools in the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry were asked to complete an online survey requiring a rating of agreement or disagreement with various statements about student satisfaction. Following these statements, participants were asked about likelihood of future donations to the optometry school. Upon collection of data from the participants, linear regression analysis was performed to attempt to find correlations between aspects of satisfaction and willingness to donate to the institution. 50 total responses were collected and analyzed. Results: 80% of responders showed interest in at least one form of donation after graduation. Of the responders that indicated interest in future donation, 40-46% showed interest in donating to the school itself, to special programs or workshops, to student organizations, and to scholarships. Only 16% expressed interest in leading fundraising projects for their institutions. There was no factor found within this study that strongly correlated with increased likelihood of future donation as alumni. Conclusions: While this study was unable to isolate an aspect of student satisfaction that strongly correlated with increased inclination toward future donation, it was discovered that most responders are willing to donate in some way to their school after graduation and the ways in which they are likely to give.
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