| The purpose of this study was to identify variables that predict alumni giving by finding donor characteristics and detailing the elements within them. A literature search revealed factors to test. The resulting characteristics and their factors were: Social demographic (gender, marital status, place of residence, age, job category, and income level), academic demographic (degree level, age of degree, how much the alum worked as a student, whether the alum was a full-time student, and whether the alum received a scholarship as a student), attitudinal (attitude toward career preparation, perception of status of the alma mater, and whether the alma mater was a first choice selection), social involvement (membership in student organizations, attendance at alumni events, membership in community organizations, and church attendance), and established giving characteristics (the giving history to one's alma mater, the giving history of the alum's spouse to the spouse's alma mater, and preferred method of solicitation).;The null hypotheses for each of the above factors were that these factors were not significant in predicting donor status. These hypotheses were tested using a case study of alumni giving for the 1991 phonathon of the Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology at Indianapolis. A mailed survey was conducted, the 1250 questionnaires of which were validated by a pilot study sent out to school student alumni, faculty, and staff. Both donors and non-donors to the phonathon were randomly surveyed.;The data returned was analyzed using chi-square, t-test, and logistic regression statistical analysis techniques with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Only three factors turned out to be significant at the.05 level, e.g., attendance at alumni events (which had a low frequency count), past donor to alma mater, and spouse a past alma mater donor. The other 18 factors had levels of significance varying from.14 to.95. The findings indicated that engineering and technology alumni have different giving patterns than other studies noted in the literature. However, past donor to alma mater and spouse a past alma mater donor successfully predicted 73% cases of the survey data collected. Theory stressing the importance of past behavior as a predictor variable was confirmed.;Recommended program initiatives resulted. |
