When it came time for me to decide on a topic, many many things came whizzing through my mind, would it be events, would we chat about underwater endowments, would we discuss the back office front office tensions? In reality, all of that seems trivial in comparison to the item I have been spending a great deal of my time dealing with and spending a lot of time mentally wrangling with. One of the wonderful things I love most about my career is that, in its finite end, I have helped student receive an education at some of the finest places of higher education this country has to offer. My current workplace is no exception, although the tuition might be expensive to some, the value of the education these students receive is phenomenal. A tiny disclosure here when I was an undergraduate at South Carolina, I was a scholarship student, and without that support would not have been able to attend my alma mater, and be a proud alumnus now, most thankful for four of the best years of my life and an education both in and out of the classroom that I know is priceless.
As most of the institutions I have worked, approximately 70 percent of the students receive some sort of financial aid to underwrite their education, with most of this money being supplied by private donors to the University. And of course, my office, like many of yours, is directly responsible for reporting on these scholarships to donors and ensuring that they feel properly thanked and understand that their monies went to a great student who was much like them when they attended University. The gap comes here in communicating this to the students. Don’t get me wrong, at times I am overwhelmed by their stories, appreciative of their willing participation in the process of those who “get it” and understand that behind every dollar is a human being who believes so greatly in their education that they made it a philanthropic priority. My question to everyone out the reading is what can we do about the rest of the recipients of these scholarships??
As I travel around the country and speak to others in my profession who work with scholarship or fellowship monies, this is one of the most consistent and troubling concerns I hear. “How do we get our students to respond to our requests for thank you notes?” “What ingenious techniques do you have for student participation in the process?” These questions hit home to me on a daily if not weekly basis. I tell people often to go where the students are, educate and tr to explain to them why these notes or gestures of gratitude are important. I am envious of my colleagues at institutions that are able to withhold funds from students until their cooperation is reached (wistful sigh). But should we even have to go to these measures? I think the greater question here is how do we educate those to truly be grateful and not feel entitled? I want to repeat here I’m not talking about every student, I am talking about the ones who ignore my requests for thank you notes for their donor who is supplying them with a $25,000 scholarship, or those who call me and ask, “Do I HAVE to write a note/meet with this donor?” I know for a fact that when they do meet their donors and hear their stories, there is a much deeper level of understanding, but the question remains, how can I make that understanding happen if they refuse to communicate with me at all?
I don’t want this blog post to sound all gloom and doom, I have had amazing success at several institutions receiving wonderful thank you notes, calls and meetings from a wide variety of students, but I realize now that the question is much larger, why is this work so difficult for us on the asking end and what can we do to find a solution? So here are some tactics that have worked for me in the past, please feel free to comment, to add your own suggestions or questions and let’s start this debate off right!
• Find students where they are: Facebook, alternate emails, cell phones, cafeterias, soccer practice, etc.
• Don’t be afraid to use the old guilt tactic- it works! Ask my mom!
• Resort to bribery if necessary- food is especially effective, cash works too-
• Put a face to the donors name, make the story personal
• Use easy methods for submission, online, email, etc.
• Be persistent and consistent If they think it is important to you it will be important to them!
• Obtain help from campus influencers: ie financial aid, coaches, deans, professors, etc.
• Don’t be afraid to engage the naysayers in a conversation and try to educate them about the process
• Be thankful for the fabulous students who write tear jerking letters and who aren’t afraid to wake up early to have breakfast with their donors
• Realize that even though you are banging your head against a wall some days, you are doing good in the world, sometimes that’s enough.
In my experience you are dealing with a heavy dose of fear factor. Sure there are ingrates out there - the world unfortunately, is full of them and they WILL attend our wonderful institutions, like it or not. But I always try to remember my own tortured experiences with the thanking process.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is one of those that made us write thank yous for gifts received. I almost hated my birthday and Christmas because it meant the Spanish Inquisition was about to begin. Some notes were easier than others - I could ask my grandmothers about their pets, or my cousins, etc. I had content upon which I could draw. But eventually I was always left with the note to this one weird Aunt. Well, I don't know if she was weird - I never actually met her. I would sit there for hours, denied the fun things I wanted to do, trying to think up great sentences for an ambiguous gift from a stranger.
What is a scholarship, I ask you? An ambiguous (to the student's point of view) gift from a stranger. Or even worse, from the descendant of a stranger.
And since many of my generation were forced to traverse this bed of burning coals every holiday we vowed we would never compel our own children to do the same thing. So where did that get us? With a generation of students that haven't the first clue of how to write a thank you note.
Try providing them with a template - you write paragraphs one and three and provide bullet point ideas to outline paragraph two.
"FOUL!" I hear you say, "Then it's me, not the student writing the letter." Consider it education by example. Four years of responding to these will produce a young adult that knows how a thank you note should look, what one typically should say.
Providing a template also lulls the student a bit with the time savings. Never forget your own days in those shoes and how hectic your life was at that time.
Finally, there will be some students who see writing a thank you note as an admission of vulnerability. It's the psychology of acceptance. Your request is tantamount to asking them to scale the tallest building on campus and shout from the rooftop "I'm poor!" Even merit kids will sometimes feel this way. As my degree has nothing to do with psychology I can't help you a whole lot with this gang.
So, even though you've made it personal, and easy (bet they could tweet one in 2 seconds) you will still have that handful of people that will blow off your request. They consider the money their due - mark down that name as they will probably be running for office in a few years ;^)
Amazing commentary, Mel. Thanks so much, I didn't know there were other kids out there like me! My mother's compulsory thank you notes prepared me for an amazing career! I have used a little thank you note template with many students in the past, and I think with my next round of requests I will implement it here as well.... as usual, you rock!
ReplyDeleteLynne
I think that addressing the "gift from a stranger" issue can yield benefits. I recently asked our scholarship donors to provide information about themselves for our students. I'm getting wonderful responses about their undergraduate days (and pranks!), family ties to the school, where their lives and education have taken them, and why it's important to them to support today's students. My hope is that by providing the donor's information to the student, the student will feel like he/she is actually writing to a PERSON, not some disembodied "donor." We'll see.
ReplyDeleteEllen,
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to hear how that goes... waiting with eager anticipation!