ACTA in the NewsDonor Intent
The Next Step for Disaffected Donors
Americans’ confidence in our higher education system is at a historic low. According to a Gallup poll this summer, only 36 percent have real...
The National Alumni Forum (ACTA), a group trying to involve college graduates in campus academic affairs, recently launched a program to target donations to specifically approved programs.
Conservative Republican Lynne Cheney, who chairs the Washington, D.C.-based group, says some alumni refuse to support their schools because “they are concerned that the money goes for things that are harmful to higher education.” These potential donors worry that their gifts will pay for what they see as politically correct–and academically weak–studies.
Cheney says her group seeks to encourage these alumni to funnel donations through its Fund for Academic Renewal, which will finance only programs that meet ACTA criteria of academic excellence. She says they will free donors from investigating that colleges use the money for its intended purpose.
But some higher education officials do not welcome the group’s efforts. Jon Heintelman, assistant vice president for development at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., says third-party fund-raisers like the fund can interfere with the relationship between universities and their donors. He also worries that the ACTA may have more than simple charity at stake. “With groups like that it’s almost impossible for them not to have some kind of agenda,” he says.
Americans’ confidence in our higher education system is at a historic low. According to a Gallup poll this summer, only 36 percent have real...
Emily Koons Jae serves as Director of the Fund for Academic Renewal (FAR), a program of ACTA that works closely...
A few weeks ago, Ken Griffin’s $300 million contribution to Harvard University inspired an op-ed in Inside Philanthropy calling on universities to be more circumspect in allowing naming rights. Named gifts are easy targets for criticism, and many wealthy donors have been accused of making charitable contributions out of mere vanity or as a Quixotic attempt to cheat death.
Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
Discover MoreSign up to receive updates on the most pressing issues facing our college campuses.