The rate of alumni providing monetary contributions to the University has declined from 34 percent to 30 percent between fiscal 2006 and 2010, according to Vice President of Development Myles Weisenberg. Weisenberg said that 34 percent of alumni provided contributions in fiscal 2006, 33 percent participated in fiscal 2007 and 30 percent participated in fiscal 2008 and 2009. Weisenberg said that the numbers for fiscal 2010 have not yet been finalized. However, according to the annual ranking of universities in U.S. News and World Report, 30 percent of alumni participated in the provision of donations in fiscal 2009, a figure that placed Brandeis 24th among 262 universities.

In a phone interview with the Justice, Senior Vice President of Institutional Advancement Nancy Winship attributed the decrease in participation to the fact that a majority of the donations come from members of the earliest graduating classes when the University was extremely small and that the later classes have fewer students providing donations because they are younger and cannot provide as much.

Winship also added that even though the participation rate has declined, the level of contributions has remained relatively steady and continues to constitute 16 to 18 percent of the money raised annually.

"Every year, more students graduate and they are very young. So if you go back to 1952, you might only have 80 or 90 people in that class versus 700 or 800 today, so that means that we keep getting younger," Winship said, explaining that this dynamic differentiates Brandeis from schools where there are equal numbers of younger and older alumni.

Weisenberg said that the rate of participation from alumni who graduated in the 1950s and 1960s is approximately 40 to50 percent but that the rate of participation among alumni who have graduated within the last 12 years is approximately between 10 and 15 percent. Weisenberg said that this dynamic lowers the participation rate because the younger classes constitute a third of the alumni pool, so "no matter how [well] the older classes . [participate], it's just going to shrink the rate down."

"Older classes give at a higher participation rate, but the difference is, we have so many more younger alumni as opposed to the older classes, and Brandeis is challenged each year for alumni participation because every year we're adding bigger classes against a base that was very small," Weisenberg explained.

When asked about the classes that graduated in the 1970s and 1980s, Weisenberg said their participation rate was approximately 30 percent.

In an effort to increase the participation rate among the younger classes, Associate Vice President of the Campaign for Brandeis Judith Krinsky said in an interview with the Justice that Brandeis is aiming to "encourage a climate of giving where people give even if it's a modest gift." Weisenberg explained that this emphasis on any type of donations begins with encouraging seniors to participate in the class gift.

"We really try hard with the senior class gift," said Weisenberg, explaining, "If we can get a lot of seniors giving, we believe that their first year out, they're in a slight habit of giving already. In their first year out, maybe instead of giving at 10 percent, they would give at 12 or 13 percent." Weisenberg also said the office is working on an emerging leaders program in which "we devote staff time to working with our youngest alumni to engage them in the hopes that they will give."

Director of Development Communications David Nathan said in an interview with the Justice that the Office of Development has developed a number of marketing campaigns on YouTube and Facebook to encourage contributions.

"The idea is go where these young alumni live. . Those were very successful in bringing in gifts from young alumni we had never gotten gifts from before," said Nathan.

Despite the gradual decline in the alumni participation rate, the University received $72 million in donations in fiscal 2010. When asked about the relationship between the rate of alumni participation and alumni giving, Weisenberg said there was essentially no relationship between the two.

"Participation is really different from alumni total giving. Total giving could go up every year while participation could go down," he said.