What is Giving Anyway?
A Message From Marianne Lord, Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement
The Encarta Dictionary defines the core meaning of “to give” as indicating that somebody presents or delivers something that he or she owns to another to keep or use.
In the context of alumni and development, people are quick to assume that giving means financial support of a school. This is not erroneous. Put simply, we rely on alumni support to make up a significant part of our operating budget each year.
The Law School is a $34 million enterprise, of which only $25 million comes from tuition. Without alumni support, our school would be much poorer in dollars as well as in diversity of students and excellence of legal scholarship. We owe a large debt to those generous alumni listed in the Annual Report of Giving.
Some of the “advancements” made possible by virtue of their decision to give include increases in Loan Repayment Assistance to our alumni working in public interest jobs, summer research funding for faculty, scholarship assistance for our JD students as well as for our first class of LL.M. students, improvement in the spaces where our community gathers, and a new electronic system for our alumni and students to network and stay in touch (stay tuned for more on that this spring). You may read more details about all of these wonderful enhancements to a BC Law education and your fellow alumni in the magazine, which is also supported by gifts to the Law School Fund.
That being said, financial contributions are not the only way to give.
As lawyers, you know the “value” of time more than anyone. Fortunately for the Law School, our alumni are exceedingly generous both with their financial support and with their time. Clearly, when someone volunteers to help strengthen our business offerings by joining the newly formed Business Advisory Council (see www.bc.edu/schools/law/alumni.html), agrees to serve on an alumni committee or on the Board of Overseers, judges an advocacy competition, or assists with admissions and career services endeavors, he or she is adding enormous value to our operation.
Alumni time, mixed with alumni dollars, is a recipe for success every time.
Your gifts, of time and money, to Boston College Law School have made our community “richer” in so many ways. I’d like to take this opportunity to say that we appreciate in every way your decision “to give” to BC Law.
Please stay involved. Your investment does more than enhance the value of your BC Law degree. It changes the world.
Sincerely,
Marianne Lord
Read the latest report on giving with donor list (PDF)
Visit our other giving pages:
Ways to Give
Dean's Council Giving Society
Law School Fund
Alumni Testimonials
