1949 Alumni Fund

Chairman's Report Summarizes Highlights Of An Outstandingly Successful Campaign

IT is A PRIVILEGE to be able to report to you on the work done for the College during the 1948-49 year by the Alumni Fund. The work done and results accomplished constitute another remarkable demonstration of understanding and interest on the part of Dartmouth alumni, and another superb example of organization, cooperation, and diligence on the part of the class agents, their assistants, and the editors of the class newsletters.

It would be natural in a report of this sort to identify by name the men who achieved significant results in various aspects of the Fund, but the tables associated with this report tell that story more completely and graphically than I could do. Every class made its contribution to the whole and I urge you to study the results with both pride in accomplishment and concern for future improvement.

NEW RECORD IN CONTRIBUTORS

The 14,519 contributors to the Fund constitute a new record in that respect, indicating a healthy growth in the base of Fund support. The $386,611.86 which they gave was the second highest in the record and an increase of about $5,000 over 1948.

As you scrutinize the details of class performance I hope you will appreciate the leadership of the oldest classes with their very high participation figures and their substantial excess of dollars over assigned objectives. These men are largely retired, yet they continue to do more than their share. Respect is likewise due the classes and agents whose excellence in both participation and dollars won their respective Green Derbies: 1900, 1915. 1921, 1939, 1935, 1945.

Even in as successful an operation as the Alumni Fund there is both room and necessity for improvement and growth. Although first recognition must be accorded those classes that have done excellent work in the past and continued to do so in 1949, we definitely congratulate the classes that assumed positions of leadership this year such as 1929, 1945, and 1947.

TOPS GOAL FOR 11TH STRAIGHT YEAR

In evaluating the results of the 1949 Alumni Fund it is important to note that this was the eleventh consecutive campaign to exceed its objective and the sixteenth in which an increase in number of contributors has been achieved. Bearing in mind the fact that the Fund forms an integral part of the College operating budget, this steady growth holds great assurance for Dartmouth's future. The net proceeds of the Fund were duly given to the Trustees for unrestricted use in support of current operations. The fact that they were not sufficient to balance the operating budget is a challenge for the future.

Thirty of the sixty classes having assigned objectives exceeded those objectives and their surpluses enabled the Fund as a whole to meet its goal. The margin by which the other thirty missed their objectives was $35,000, or enough to have brought the total dollars to $420,000. This again is important to the future of both Fund and College.

There were 25 classes having participation of 90% or better in the 1949 campaign as against 19 in 1948, and 42 with 80% or better as against 36 in 1948. This is perhaps one of the most significant features of the campaign, carrying assurance that an ever-increasing proportion of alumni are recognizing and acting upon the responsibility which is in part theirs for the continued excellence of privately financed education in America. Perhaps equally encouraging in that respect is the growth in the number of Dartmouth Regulars from 6,182 in 1948 to 6,764. This means that 46% of all the contributors to the 1949 Fund had given for ten or more consecutive years or ever since their graduation.

EIGHT AGENTS END THEIR WORK

It is both traditional and proper that such a report as this should pay tribute to those agents who laid down their responsibilities at the end of this campaign. It is with real sorrow that we mark the passing of William E. Stanley '91 who had served faithfully and well for twenty-one years. Other changes in the roster represented retirements, and in that connection I should like to thank the following men for their many contributions to the strength of the Alumni Fund: John F. Conners '14, Donald E. Coyle '24, William G. Morton '28, John F. Rich '30, Duncan L. Farr '39, Nichol M. Sandoe Jr. '45, and Jeremiah Ludington '48.

I am always amazed to find that there are still alumni who do not understand that much of Dartmouth's present stature and excellence has been made possible by the Alumni Fund, and that quite literally those qualities could not be main tained today without the Alumni Fund. This is a simple, fundamental truth. The Fund is not frosting on the cake. It is a vital part of Dartmouth's current operating budget. Since this is true today and will be increasingly true in the future, I should like to close this report with two matters of personal conviction which seem to me essential to the future of the Fund and the College.

My first conviction is that the independent colleges like Dartmouth are as vital to our society as our churches, our hospitals, and our other community service organizations. We, as alumni of such a college, have the first responsibility for its continued vitality and should, therefore, give as much and as thoughtfully to its support as we do to any local cause.

My second conviction is that the concern for Dartmouth which so many of us feel and which leads us to support it in various ways should be projected as our means permit through bequests, thus petuating, at least in part, the service which we now render.

If these ideas become an effective part of our thinking and planning the success of the Alumni Fund and the excellence of the College will be lifted far beyond any hopes we may now entertain for their future.

CHAIRMAN JOHN R. MASON '15

FUND DIRECTOR: George H. Colton '35, Hanover head of the Alumni Fund, is executive secretary of the newly formed Dartmouth Development Council.