Why is alumni participation important? Simply put alumni participation affects the College’s ability to: attract grant dollars, our accreditation review, and our ability to recruit students! The alumni participation rate serves as one benchmark for measuring the strength of West Virginia Wesleyan College. Foundations and corporations often refer to this rate when reviewing grant applications. They frequently adopt a stance of helping those institutions that are well supported by their alumni. Alumni gift support is reviewed as a part of the accreditation process. College guides, such as U.S. News and World Reports Best Colleges, give higher rankings to institutions whose alumni demonstrate confidence in their alma mater measured by giving participation rates. College-bound students use these guides for narrowing their choices of institutions.

How can one person really make a difference? Small numbers count in a small college like Wesleyan. It only takes 132 alumni to increase our participation rate by one percent. If you are married and your spouse is also a Wesleyan graduate that means your joint gift counts for two alumni. Think about your classmates you stay in touch with, and their Wesleyan friends. Among your own network, you probably could easily increase our participation rate by one percent!

West Virginia Wesleyan College needs you to make a gift today. Last year, Wesleyan’s peer institutions averaged 30% alumni participation, compared to our alumni participation rate of 23%. Our goal for the current fiscal year is to reach a participation rate of 25%. To help hit this target, alumni who have not yet made a gift this fiscal year must demonstrate their support before June 30th. At the end of January, 15% of our alumni already had given Wesleyan a vote of confidence with their support. You can make a gift and cast your vote now by clicking here.