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Are those millionaire/billionaire alumnis making donations? To me it sounds really strange that "normal" alumni would donate to their university in addition to

• save_ferris 7y ago
  Yes, and quite often those donations come with major athletics perks. I went to a big basketball school (several NCAAM titles), and I was in the band/drum line which did a ton of entertaining for wealthy alumni during games. Basically the way it works is that you make a “donation” to the school in order to access blocks of tickets to games. The more you “donate”, the better your tickets are. If you “donate” enough, you even get access to exclusive pregame events that usually entail comped drinks and live entertainment (band and cheerleader performances). Some of the biggest donors even get to travel with the team on road games. There was a small group that would travel with university personnel and get some interaction with players during tournament trips.
• grogenaut 7y ago
  Many of the major donors who were doing things like funding buildings would also toss in a tennis court or jerseys for all of the teams. The low end donations were also a lot higher for anyone in a club. The school allows targeted donations. So if you wanted you could donate to sports. They also have smart alumni things. For instance for $2000, I can buy a plaque over the locker for the player with my number (essentially buying the number). It would have been $500 but 2 of them got in a bidding war, and $2k is the price to knock them both out.