You will find that the fund raising materials you receive provide a variety of information about the College and how you can make a difference to Wesleyan, no matter the size of your donation. Specifically, you have received materials that highlight Wesleyan’s alumni participation rate. Many of you may be asking, what is the importance of this figure and what does it have to do with me? The quick and precise answer is that it has everything to do with you! This fiscal year, West Virginia Wesleyan College will solicit 13,600 alumni. The alumni participation rate depends on how many of us give back to the College. Currently, the rate is 21%, which means only 2,756 of us have donated to the College this year and the goal of the Advancement Office is to reach at least 25% or 3,325 individuals.

One of the main goals of the Development Committee of the Council is to raise the alumni participation rate even higher by raising awareness about the rate and how easy it is for us to increase this figure. The only message I ask you to remember is that when it comes to your donation to Wesleyan: SIZE DOES NOT MATTER!!!! Any gift to the College, no matter the amount, increases our overall participation rate. Many of you may be in my situation and are still repaying student loans, which impacts the amount of your total gift to Wesleyan. However, even a gift of five dollars is of great importance to your Alma Mater because you will have increased the participation rate, which will help tremendously!

THINK ABOUT IT..... When a professor is applying for a grant from one of the many foundations, the application will ask him or her what is your college’s alumni participation rate. Will our professor proudly write 50% instead of 21%? This depends on you. After all, viewed in a different perspective, why should a foundation help West Virginia Wesleyan College if we do not do our part and support our own Alma Mater? For more information on how you can help increase the alumni participation rate, e-mail makeagift@wvwc.edu or visit the make a gift web site. Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope to see you at our “Home Among the Hills” or at an alumni event in the near future.

Sincerely,