Traditionally, the annual Senior Gift campaign at Stanford, a senior class-led fundraising effort that benefits the Stanford Fund, suffers from abysmal participation rates. Although about 80 seniors made gifts of $100 or more in last year’s campaign — only 41 percent of outgoing seniors even donated anything to the Senior Gift. In contrast, Stanford’s peer institutions — Harvard, Princeton and Yale — have senior class giving rates of about 65 to 80 percent. This year’s Senior Gift will likely have a participation rate under 50 percent as well.

We understand that seniors may be annoyed at having to give money to Stanford while still having to bear the enormous financial burden of paying for a Stanford education. The Board of Trustees continues to make sizeable increases to tuition every year, while the cost of room and board goes up unrelentingly. Seen in this light, a donation to the Senior Gift campaign seems like one additional cost added to the hefty price tag of a Stanford diploma.

The point of the Senior Gift campaign is to encourage participation among all outgoing seniors. According to the Senior Gift Web site, “Every gift, whatever the size, counts towards participation.” This is ostensibly to create a culture of giving back to Stanford long after we leave college. So while many seniors this year will make a donation of $20.05, any amount donated contributes to the overall participation rate and to this culture of giving. We feel that a donation of $5 — the price of a Subway sandwich — would be a reasonable sacrifice for seniors to make.

To put things in perspective, last year’s senior class raised $23,784. The money raised by seniors was matched by outside donors, who gave more than $3 for every $1 raised. After matching gifts, the class of 2004 raised a grand total of $141,285.

However, the Senior Gift campaign could be better organized. Current campaign efforts bear an uncanny resemblance to a pyramid scheme, with members of the 70-strong Participation Committee trying to cajole friends into making a donation. Seniors are also likely to be put off by the unsolicited mail and phone calls they receive. The campaign ought to promote giving through its Web site more often in order to make the process more efficient.

Perhaps the organizers could look into more creative ways to encourage seniors to participate in the campaign. One idea for next year’s committee, for example, would be to partner with the organizers of Pub Night, where a fraction of the proceeds from drinks would go to the Senior Gift. Strategies like these are more likely to encourage greater participation among the graduating class of seniors.