Fund Council Total for 1951 Hits $409,000

The Harvard Fund Council raised a near-record $409,300 during 1951, David McCord '21, executive secretary of the Council, announced this week, but this total placed Harvard considerably behind the amounts collected by Yale Dartmouth, and Princeton. Harvard also lagged in percentage of givers and average contributions.

The Yale Fund led with $1,010,000 collected during its 250th anniversary year with Dartmouth getting $577,000, and Princeton $529,000. All these sums are unrestricted gifts collected annually through class agents.

With an all-time high (15,616) in the number of contributors, the Harvard Fund was up $8,000 from 1950 and was second only to 1948's dollar total of $544,000 given during the last year of a special drive to endow Lament Library.

Dartmouth recorded the top percentage in contributors out of its entire alumni body with 65 percent. Fifty-Four percent of the Yale undergraduate alumni donated; at Princeton the percentage was 52, and in Harvard College it was 37.

In size of average contributions Harvard also trailed. The average gift from Yale alumni who attended an undergraduate college was $44.11. Princeton's average was $41.79, Dartmouth's $37.28, and Harvard's was $26.22.

However, the picture for the Harvard Fund is brightening with almost 1,500 contributors over 1950. In its 26 years of existence, the fund has brought the University over $5,100,000.

Various reasons explain Harvard's comparatively poor record. The local drive is limited to mail solicitation while some of the other programs put more pressure on alumni through follow-up personal calls. In addition, the Harvard Fund is less than half as old as Yale's and has less tradition behind it.