2002-2003 Report of Giving

Dear alumni, friends and colleagues,

It is always a pleasure to look over the year of giving to RIT and recognize the tremendous number of gifts and long-term commitments made in support of the university. It is especially gratifying this year — one of the most economically challenging in recent memory — that our alumni still came through for us.

We had more new alumni donors to RIT this year than we’ve had in the past several years; 1,621 joined the ranks; 55 percent increase over the previous year and a 100 percent increase over 2000-2001. We know that this was due in large part to the incentive offered by the RIT Board of Trustees in July 2002. With the promise to match gifts from new donors one-to-one and gifts from new, young donors two-to-one, many alums decided this was the year to make their first gift to support today’s students.

This also affected what we call the “participation rate.” Every college and university is measured by the degree to which its alumni give back. It is seen in many rankings of college and university standings as a measure of the perceived value of the alum’s degree. While RIT has been lagging behind in alumni “participation,” this year we saw the rate jump. Responses to our fiscal year 2003 alumni appeals increase by 1.5 percentage points.

All the donors and volunteers listed in the following pages represent the tremendous confidence that our alumni and friends have in RIT. Please review them and share in this pride.

Sincerely,

Laurel G. Price Jones Vice President Development and Alumni Relations lpj@rit.edu 585-475-7721

Kenneth J. Reed '71 President Alumni Network Board kenneth.reed@kodak.com