The Good to Know program is designed to inform students as to exactly how they benefit from private donations other than the highly visible senior class gift, which is already on track to exceed the class officers' fund-raising goal.
"(The Good to Know program is) not fund raising yet, but it's raising awareness," said Greg Prince, director of the Young Alumni and the Senior Class Gift Committee.
The program has been in the works since 1997 when the development office realized it was falling behind other schools in private donations, Prince said. "Good to Know is a proactive step as part of an initiative set up by (former) Chancellor (Michael) Hooker."
Prince said alumni, student and corporate donations to the development office are a major source of funding for professorships, scholarships and University Career Services.
The program's main activity is a Web-based trivia contest advertised in the Student Union, Davis Library and the Granville Towers cafeteria. Students who answer four questions correctly at www.unc.edu/goodtoknow will be entered to win a UNC sweatshirt.
"We're going to have fun with (the program)," Prince said, adding that a link to the Web site has been added to computers in all on-campus labs.
Prince said that at Duke University's orientation, the prospective students are made aware of the importance of private donations and told that they will be expected to give back after graduation. At UNC, however, many students link alumni donations solely with the right to buy basketball season tickets, Prince said.
"A lot of people don't even know (the development office) exists," he said. "If we want to remain competitive with the 'public ivies,' we need people to donate money."
Many students are first asked for private donations when officers are raising money for the senior class gift. During the last four years, Prince said seniors have responded positively in reaching their monetary goal each year.
