<p>I will ignore the other stuff, which is generally a rehash of your standard “talking points”,</p>
<p>I will say, however, that to the best of my knowledge Princeton does have the greatest <em>percentage</em> of undergrads who contribute annually among the Ivies, with Harvard (formerly Dartmouth) second.</p>
<p>The per capita contributions at Harvard (and Stanford) are much higher.</p>
<p>Why this is so - in either instance - is a matter about which one can speculate.</p>
<p>I DO know that at Notre Dame - which also has a very high alumni contribution rate - contributors to the alumni fund at a certain level get an edge in buying football tickets.</p>
<p>I have heard catty remarks from some in “the trade” that there are schools (unnamed, to protect the guilty) which count as “contributors” anyone who pays dues to the alumni association, subscribes to the alumni magazine, or uses an affiliate Mastercard or Visa. Shocking stuff, no?</p>
<p>And it pains me to say this, but I have also heard that at ONE Ivy (again, unnamed) enthusiastic fundraising personages have been known to make a flock of $5 contriubutions in the name of normally deadbeat classmates in order to inflate the “giving rate”! Not at Harvard, of course.</p>