WOW!!! What a great year for the Great Class of ’68.
Presented by David Stanley, Head Agent.
We set our goals for the year at $350,000 and a participation rate of 50% (312 gifts). We achieved results of $472,343 and 327 gifts, a 52% participation rate. Our dollar amount represents 135% of our goal and our participation rate represents 105% of our goal. These results put us in the top 5 of all classes. Only 6 classes had a 50% participation rate or better.
A special thanks goes out to our classmates that contributed this year. And a super special thanks goes to the 4 surviving spouses and families that contributed this year that included one very special gift in the amount of $1968.00.
Our 33 classmate solicitors had 329 prospects and delivered 298 gifts, a 91% success rate. 13 of our solicitors had a 100% success rate and 13 were short just 1 prospect of achieving a 100% success rate. All of our solicitors made a gift. Our solicitors are: Mark Battin, Parker Beverage, John Blair, Tai-Sam Choo, Dennis Donohue, Peter Dunn, David Gang, Eric Hatch, Gary Hobin, Peter Hofman, Andy Hotaling, John Isaacson, Cedri Kam, Richard Kimball, Michael Lenehan, William Martens, Chri Meigher, Richard Miller, Dick Olson, James, Payne, Bill Rich, Bob Ross, George Spivey, David Stanley, Bob Tannenwald, Daniel Tom, David Walden, Mark Waterhouse, Peter Weston, Roger Witten, Peter Wonson and Joe Nathan Wright.
We made our participation goal for the 5th consecutive year – the first time our class has ever done that. We surpassed our dollar goal for the 9th time in 10 years. The only year we missed the dollar goal was 2023 when received gifts totaling $868,000 against our goal of $1million. For the last 5 years we met or exceeded our goals 9 out of 10 times. There are 70 classes that participate in the Dartmouth College Fund and there are only 4 classes that have met or exceeded their goals 9 out of 10 times in the last 5 years.
The Dartmouth College Fund has a number of awards that it gives to the participating classes. This year the Great Class of ’68 is the recipient of 2 awards: the Bruce D. Miller 1974 Award for the greatest number of donors whose previous gift was 5+ years ago and first-time donors and the Class of 1979 Award for the best post reunion retention rate for a 91% retention rate. Bob Ross brought in a gift from one of our classmates that had never made a gift before – a truly wonderful achievement.
The Dartmouth College Fund honors donors who have made a contribution every year since graduation by naming them members of the Ripley Society named in honor of Harold Ripley ‘29, an all-time great solicitor. We are honored to have 79 members of our class as members of the Ripley Society.
We are working on this year’s campaign that will end on June 39, 2025 and will share our goals with you in the coming months. Please remember to consider using your IRA/401K Required Minimum Distribution as a way of making your contribution before December 31, 2024 or June 30, 2025.