GIA 2004 Excellence Winner

Electronic Communications - Audio, Video and Slides

University of Michigan Medical School

Lifting the Burden...Realizing the Dream

Medical school debt continues to grow and plague a new generation of aspiring doctors. Michigan's Medical Development and Alumni Relations officers reached out to alumni most likely to donate to the school in an ambitious effort to decrease the financial burden on students when they graduate.

Goal

• To create a video log of current medical students describing the financial constraints of working toward a medical degree that would increase alumni donorship to the Medical School by 10 percent annually for the next five years. Donations had remained stagnant for more than a decade.

Results

• During 2003, 16 percent of alumni who had not previously donated to the Medical School gave financial contributions after viewing the video log.
• Seventeen alumni pledged an annual gift of $5,000 for four years to support a student through four years of medical school.
• After viewing the video at an annual dinner, the widow of an emeritus professor immediately wrote and donated a $10,000 check.

Read the full narrative (Word document)

Contact: Jane Myers, Director, Development Medical Campus, jemyers@umich.edu

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