Donating to your Alma Matter signals that (1) you succeeded and (2) that your Alma Matter helped you succeed. Given enough donations, this boosts your own prest

Donating to your Alma Matter signals that (1) you succeeded and (2) that your Alma Matter helped you succeed. Given enough donations, this boosts your own prestige. Or, reverse this: if I go to a school and that school suddenly starts to suck, then I will be tainted with the school sucking. Either way, it's a problem of credentialism.