<p>Does anyone notice if their college (or kid’s college, if you donate as a parent) still sends a list of the donors out every year? Do you care if they send it or not? Would you notice if they stopped?</p>
<p>I thought sending a list of donors to all donors was a legal requirement of a nonprofit. </p>
<p>Hmm… I don’t think so. As far as I can tell, an organization has to list their donors in their Form 990 (which is available to the public) only if the organization is a 501©(3) private foundation, 4947(a)(1) non-exempt charitable trust, or 527 political organization. I don’t think colleges are any of those three specific categories. I know of a college that would like to stop sending the list out. It is expensive and difficult to get just right (name misspellings, people in wrong giving categories if their separate gifts are properly added together, etc.) and they call in annoyance, etc. They are wondering if anyone would notice or care if they stopped sending it out… or if other colleges have done this (stopped the mailing).</p>
<p>I used to find it interesting to look through for about 3 minutes a year. I couldn’t tell you whether I get anything that lists them any longer, and I wouldn’t care if they stopped. </p>
<p>I like getting the list that comes from my small, dear-to-me undergrad college in various alum mailings. I like to see names for nostalgia’s sake. I do donate. However, I never bother to check my immense university or the grad school alumni mailings for a donors list. I would guess the university would print a list (maybe post online, though), and the smaller grad school would list in the school’s alumni mag (but I don’t pay attention). — I do always read the class notes, deaths, and publications lists from all three sources (undergrad college, university, grad school program), though. </p>
<p>I certainly agree about the class notes. I think this college is trying to figure out if anyone else has stopped doing this… and if anyone noticed. :)</p>
<p>We get alumni magazines from both our UG and DH’s Grad school. In the back of both of them there is alway a list of the donors IF they hit certain levels. So say you donate $1,000 you would be listed under a that level. However they don’t list people like us who donate a lot less…</p>
<p>Ours comes out in the annual report…every place we donate. </p>
<p>And… would you care if they didn’t? Would you notice if they stopped sending it?</p>