Record alumni giving at Tuck again? Yes, you read that right. Tuck alumni have outdone themselves once more this year as part of the annual Tuck Annual Giving (TAG) campaign, raising an all-time high of $6.4 million. For five years running, more than 70 percent of Tuck graduates have contributed to the campaign—a participation rate that dwarfs even the closest competitors among other business schools.
“Once again, our alumni have shown their satisfaction with and loyalty to Tuck as a truly special place like no other,” says John Torget T’00, director of Tuck Annual Giving. While Tuck did not publicly release an actual donor count, Torget says more alumni than ever before gave this year. Last year, 6,332 alumni took part, according to the school’s reports.
Providing approximately eight percent of the school’s operating revenues as well as direct support for innovation, Tuck Annual Giving has seen a marked increase every year. This year’s revenue surpasses 2014’s $6.35 million, which eclipsed 2013’s $6.3 million, which bested 2012’s $5.7 million.
“As always, this campaign’s success is as much a testament to the generosity of our alumni as it is to the thoughtfulness and dedication of our global network of volunteers and our Hanover-based giving team,” Peter Lebovitz T’78, chair of the Tuck Annual Giving Executive Committee, said in a statement. “We all share the same vision of Tuck and our community reaching ever-greater heights.”
Notably, the record-setting funds raised by TAG are completely separate from and in addition to a $10 million endowment established by Tuck alumni in May in honor of departing Dean Paul Danos, who stepped down this year after 20 years of service to the school. Those funds, contributed by 50 alumni and special friends of the school, will name the school’s deanship in honor of Danos and support future deans in perpetuity.
Tuck alums give back to their school at a much higher rate than alums of many peer schools. The Yale School of Management (SOM), which trails Tuck most closely, celebrated record giving itself this year. There, alumni giving for fiscal year 2015 reached $3 million, with 51.5 percent of alumni participating. The Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, which boast the third highest annual fund participation rate of any U.S. business school, raised $5.1 million in the past year, with 42 percent alumni participation.
