Students Propose Charitable Senior Gift

A group of Harvard seniors has launched the Alternative Senior Gift campaign to raise money for the Cambridge Boys and Girls Club and prompt dialogue about charitable giving among Harvard students.

The Alternative Senior Gift campaign began last week partly as a reaction to the official Senior Gift campaign, a student-led effort to collect money from Harvard’s graduating seniors.

“We expressed frustration that there was no dialogue or discussion about alternative recipients for donations. [We] started brainstorming about if we were going to give a gift back to the Harvard community, where would we want it to go?” said Anne G. Beckett ’04, who conceived the idea for the campaign with Rachel S. Bloomekatz ’04, Celeste R. LeCompte ’04 and Amy C. Wagner ’04.

Beckett and LeCompte said one of their key goals is to increase dialogue about charitable giving at Harvard, but not necessarily to dissuade seniors from making contributions to Harvard.

“We’re not anti-Harvard; we’re also not pro-Harvard. This is just a conversation we’re trying to raise as Harvard students,” said LeCompte, who added that she was donating to both the official and alternative programs.

Beckett echoed these sentiments.

“We’re encouraging people to think about where their money is going and to make whatever decision is compelling to them,” she said. “We’re not specifically encouraging people to give to Senior Gift; we’re not asking them not to. Nor do we have any problem with people giving to both Alternative Senior Gift and Senior Gift.”

But Tamiko A. Tsurudome ’04, Senior Gift co-chair, said the Alternative Senior Gift campaign has hampered fundraising for the official program.

“I do believe that it has [negatively affected the number of donations] unfortunately,” she said.

Tsurudome added that she respected the Alternative Senior Gift’s goal of increasing dialogue about charitable giving.

“I definitely agree that what they’re trying to do is valuable and meaningful and very important,” she said.

LeCompte and Beckett said they did not yet know how much money the alternative campaign had raised.

Information about the Alternative Senior Gift has spread primarily through word of mouth and House e-mail lists, and the campaign continues to attract more students, LeCompte said.

“It’s loosely growing,” she said. “I think right now we have about 15 pretty committed people, but everyday we get another e-mail from someone interested in helping.”

LeCompte noted a common argument about donations to the official Senior Gift campaign—that even donations earmarked for financial aid do not increase the amount of financial aid give to students because that number is already set. In effect, such donations only decrease the amount of unrestricted funds that are necessary for funding the financial aid program.

Director of Undergraduate Programs at the Harvard College Fund Kathleen Murray said that while donations to financial aid do not affect the amount of aid given out by the College the following year, such donations enable the College to expand its financial aid program in future years.

“Look at how the increase of financial aid has changed over the years,” she said, as evidence for the long-term effect that donations to the financial aid program have.

Tsurudome said that donations earmarked for financial aid were also important for the statement they make to the College.

“I think that our participation and our support of efforts such as these like Senior Gift is a definite expression to alumni and to administrators of the University of how important we think financial aid is,” she said.

Members of the two campaigns are worried that the dichotomy between the two programs might end up dividing the senior class.

“What I don’t support is that [the Alternative Senior Gift is] a direct attack on what 200 seniors have directed their effort and energy towards,” Tsurudome said, adding that she would rather it not be framed as an alternative to the Senior Gift. “I know it’s not a perfect system, but Senior Gift is just one way that I want to say thank you.”

But Beckett said despite the campaign’s title, the move is not intended as an attack on the Senior Gift.

“I’m concerned that some senior gift representatives have felt offended or attacked by Alternative Senior Gift. And I guess to them I’d like to say that we did not envision this project as a method of undermining senior gift,” said Beckett. “We sort of only want to put other options out there and encourage a dialogue about Senior Gift and other gift giving.”