I am Spirit of Scholarship Yet to Come that was foretold.
I point you to a future that, if left unresolved, will leave the Alpha Scholarship Program unable to fulfill its support mission, making the amount of scholarship less and less viable compared to escalating education expenses. This will leave future active members without the resources and pride of receiving a meaningful Alpha Scholarship. Times for young people are tough and most are in debt with loans as education expenses continue to explode. The amount of scholarship monies offered continues to trail expenses and the donations from you the Alumni have been inadequate to correct the situation. Drastic increases are needed.
Even with the interest and matching funds from the Scholarship Fund, the total amount of all three of our scholarships each year ($7000) meets only about one semester worth of tuition at UMD. This fraction of coverage has surprisingly changed very little since the first scholarship ($100) which covered one quarter of tuition. This is obviously due to the tremendous increase in annual tuition from $300 to $14,000 at UMD. Considering that we have gone from an Alumni Association of eight founders to over 350 members, it would seem that increasing the Scholarship Fund would be able to be corrected, but it has not. Too many members are unaware, too busy or have turned their backs. The fund has been growing at 3% per year and we need to be at 7% just to keep up with the historical escalation of tuition. If we cannot do this, or something like it, our scholarships may soon meet less and less college expenses. A slow fade into oblivion.
It is hoped that this is not the result….
Using our Scholarship Fund as a source of scholarship distribution money, we need make it our goal to double the present fund ($90,000) to generate a full year’s tuition. This will obviously require many significant donations by the members of the Alpha Alumni Association who are willing to step up.
The good news is that there are many of you Alumni available to contribute and there are some great ideas that have been developed by the organization leadership together with the University to greatly augment this program. We also plan to better publicize our scholarship awards both inside and outside our organization to show our focus and the importance of the awards.
Hopefully the Spirit of Scholarship Yet to Come has awakened your heart. Ultimately, the future of the Alpha Scholarship Program depends on each of you. We feel that there are presently a variety of ways for you to be involved at whatever level you can make an impact.
If after the visits from all these spirits you have an awakening to the obligations of Brotherhood, please become part of the program. You have seen the history. You have heard from scholarship recipients and you see the need. You see where we are and where we need to go. Please share what you can so that this program can continue and flourish.
What does the future hold for our scholarship program? There are now a number of scholarship donation methods that are now available to increase revenues in our scholarship fund so that we will be able to offer more to future active members to meet escalating college expenses and to keep alive the principles upon which Alpha was founded. All of these are described on a page of our Alpha Alumni website: Alpha Dues and Donations
Traditional Donation Method
Donations can of course be made by downloading a form on our website and sending it with a check that includes your dues.
Donations can also be made directly to the Alpha Scholarship Fund
Direct Monetary Donations to the Scholarship Fund
Direct credit donations to the "UMD Alpha Nu Omega Scholarship Fund" can be handled on a web page of the University of Minnesota Foundation. This can be done by a one time donation or a recurring monthly payment. This is a very bare online interface, but once an initial donation is made directly to the Fund, the UMF will send you a variety of other ways to donate in addition to your receipt. UMD Alpha Nu Omega Alumni Association Scholarship Fund
Estate Donations to the Alpha Scholarship Fund
Besides a simple monetary donation, it is hoped that Alpha alumni will consider larger endowments to the scholarship fund in their estate planning. The UMD Development Office will work with donors large and small to leave estate donations to the Alpha scholarship fund through a variety of methods. They have provided the following document to help donors to understand the process and are available to provide personal guidance in the donation process
Sponsorships Since we have not dedicated a new scholarship for about 30 years, there may also be an opportunity to add new scholarship designations to our repertoire. This could be handled by getting scholarship sponsors within the Alumni Association to create new scholarships in their names with large enough donations directly made to the Alpha Scholarship Fund. If you are considering this, challenge others as well.
Dues Payments
Besides donations to the Scholarship Fund, we also ask for $50 annual dues payments to keep the Alumni Association functioning. We offer two ways to do this.
Traditional Method
Donations by mail can be made with a check that can also include dues payments with the downloaded form.
Recurring Dues Payments
Members can set up recurring payments by secure credit card/PayPal account on an annual basis which will make paying dues simpler than the present system and to eliminate the constant appeals.
Any money not used by the Association will be sent to the Scholarship Fund.Again, all dues and donations are tax deductible.
My Scholarship Spirit time is fading. Thank you for taking time to view my narrative. It is hoped that the “Spirits” that have come to you have awakened your own spirit by donating to the Alpha Scholarship Fund through the Dues and Donations Page of the Alpha Alumni Association website. We also encourage you to provide an extra donation to the fund for any years of neglect. Remember, all dues and donations are tax deductible because we are a 501(c)(3) organization….
And finally .... God bless us, everyone!
Click on this Icon to View Donation Options on Our Web Page
Contact the Alpha Alumni Association:
Jim Klang
Alpha Nu Omega Alumni Secretary
28W181 Belleau Drive
Winfield, IL 60190 Alpha Alumni Email
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