Participation rate increase is also key to Campaign's success

While major gifts make the headlines in any fund-raising campaign, institutional advancement professionals say that participation--building broad support with numerous smaller gifts--is just as vital. Boston College is seeking a high rate of participation in the Ever to Excel Campaign, particularly now, with the $400 million Campaign entering the national phase.

BC hopes to widen its appeal beyond what it achieved in the last capital campaign, when the University raised $136 million through the gifts of 56,347 individual donors.

High participation directly affects the total money raised, but it also helps Boston College in less obvious ways. The percentage of alumni giving is a key element in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings. Among seven of BC's competitor schools--Harvard, Cornell, Brown, the University of Notre Dame, Georgetown, Tufts University, and the University of North Carolina--six have higher alumni giving rates than BC.

In addition, corporations and foundations often consider participation when making grant awards--and these affect everything from a university's overall financial health to the productivity of its faculty.

Fides giving society chairman Edmund F. Murphy '84 said he and his corps of volunteers will work hard to elevate alumni participation. "Donors aspire to join Fides," he said, "so we need to encourage alumni to make that first gift, to take that first step on the way to Fides."
University trustee and President's Circle chair Susan McManama Gianinno '70 said she is confident the Campaign theme--that this moment offers a rare chance for unparalleled excellence--will "strike a chord" with the BC community. The theme is "credible and timely," said Gianinno; it achieves "just the right balance of immediacy and aspiration."


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