The Tufts Student Fund (TSF) campaign failed to meet its goal of a 25 percent participation rate, but managed to raise thousands of dollars to be used for financial aid for a current student, the office overseeing the fund announced yesterday.
The fundraising program, which began on Feb. 23 and went until last Friday, elicited $7,606 from 1,065 student donors as of yesterday afternoon. This amounts to a 20 percent participation rate, which will be matched by a $20,000 gift from an anonymous donor.
The total of $27,606 will go next year toward a one-year scholarship for one student.
Had the TSF reached its goal, the donor would have pledged $50,000. Originally, $25,000 was promised to set up a one-year scholarship; on March 9, fund organizers announced that the donor would double the contribution to cover scholarships for two students.
The TSF is an offshoot of the Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences and Engineering, which runs drives to secure annual philanthropy from alumni and extended community members. Nineteen students from a cross-section of student groups are running the fund with administrative support from the university.
The TSF was the first major university fundraising campaign to specifically target the entire student body.
Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Jimmy Zuniga, who developed the idea for a student-targeted fundraising program last semester, said the results, though impressive, might have been different with more planning.
"I'm really happy with those numbers," Zuniga, a freshman, said. "I think that one reason why we didn't really get to achieve our goal was because we started this at sort of an awkward time because people were really busy with exams and other things."
Zuniga also said the two-week time period over which solicitations to the fund were made might not have proved long enough to foster enough student involvement.
"In spite of the circumstances, we did pretty well," he said. "I don't think we advertised enough. I don't think there was enough outreach, and because there wasn't really much outreach and good discussion, I think it's amazing we actually got 20 percent."
When Zuniga originally thought about creating a student-targeted fundraiser, he gave up on it because of logistical difficulties such as how to go about collecting money from students.
Since then, the administration took up the idea and facilitated the collection of money from students.
The TSF was advertised extensively in the Daily and provoked a debate over the establishment of the fund. One op-ed piece accused the Senate of harboring "white guilt" in their creation of the fund.
"During my three years at Tufts, I have never seen such passionate discussion about philanthropy among the student body," Caryn Karo, the assistant director of the Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences and Engineering, said in an e-mail. "Tufts students are skilled at asking important questions and engaging one another in significant conversation, and they demonstrated this once again in response to the Student Fund."
The final tally may change slightly as donations made over the weekend are still tallied, but the new donations will probably not change the participation percentage, according to Karo.
"Students are welcome to continue giving if they wish, and their contributions will be counted in our final numbers," she said.
According to TCU President Duncan Pickard, the 25-percent goal was set arbitrarily without really knowing what the student response would be.
"I think getting over 1,000 students to contribute to something like this is really wonderful and successful," said Pickard, a junior.
Ben Gittleson contributed reporting to this article.
