THE MECHANICS OF GIVING –

CHECKS, CREDIT CARDS, AND ONLINE GIVING

• The amount of the gift
• The donor’s account number
• The expiration date
• The type of card used
• The name of the donor as it appears on the card

Checks are welcome. Tell donors to make checks payable to the “Williams College Alumni Fund” and be sure to enclose a BRE with your follow-up note. If donors have lost their BRE, have them mail their gift to 75 Park Street, Williamstown, MA 01267.

Tell donors they can make a credit card gift online. Although the best way to finalize a gift is to take the donor’s credit card number over the phone, if you reach someone who would like to use another means to make a gift, suggest that gifts can be made quickly and easily using Williams’ secure server. Direct your classmates to http://give2.williams.edu, where they will find further instructions. It is especially effective to put this Web page address in any follow-up e-mail messages you send.

Gifts of stock. Many donors like to make outright gifts to Williams in the form of appreciated securities. Appreciated marketable securities (those held more than twelve months and not closely-held) offer extra tax advantages, such as a charitable income tax deduction if the donor itemizes taxes, and avoidance of capital gains tax (since a tax deduction may be claimed for the market value rather than the purchase price of long-term stock). Encourage your donors to give their brokers at least several weeks notice for the transfer of shares to be accomplished in time: early December for calendar-year-end donors and a month before the end of the Fund year for others. Call 413-597-4259 for information about the stock transfer process. Information is also available online: http://www.williams.edu/alumni/campaign/ways2give/apprsec-cashwires.php

Williams accepts foreign currency. We can take gifts in foreign currency (including checks), but they should have a minimum $50.00 (U.S.) value because of collection/conversion costs. Encourage alumni making such gifts to do so early to allow time to convert currencies to U.S. dollars. Even better, encourage them to make a credit card gift online at http://give2.williams.edu.

Matching gifts. Revenue from corporate matching is an important source of income for Williams. Thousands of organizations match gifts of employees, directors, and retirees. Please check the profile report on each classmate to see if he or she qualifies for a match. If so, mention the matching gift program in your notes and phone calls and encourage your donor to request a matching gift form from his or her matching source (usually the personnel or benefits office) and mail it to Williams along with the gift. Williams will do all of the additional paperwork required. The process is simple, and the money generated for the Alumni Fund is very important. In the 2004 Alumni Fund, the College received $580,062 in matching gifts.

Gifts made in memory or in honor of a Williams graduate. Alumni and friends often make gifts to the Alumni Fund in memory or in honor of alumni and faculty. A special report is mailed each year to all alumni recognizing those individuals so remembered. In the case of a memorial gift, the College will mail a letter to the closest living family member for whom there is an address on file. Living alumni who have had gifts made in their honor receive a letter notifying them of this recognition. Gifts made in honor of alumni are counted in the class of the honoree. Memorial gifts are counted in the class of the donor, unless otherwise specified.

When a gift is made. Every donor receives a receipt from the College for tax purposes. When one of the classmates assigned to you makes a gift, his or her name and gift amount will appear on the ledger report. This report will be mailed to you regularly during the course of the Fund season. The ledger, updated daily, is also available online at http://www.williams.edu/alumni/ volunteer (click on “My Reports”). When you learn that a classmate has made a gift, please send a thank you note as soon as you can.

Leadership Gifts. Williams appreciates all gifts from alumni, but gifts at the leadership level of $2000 or more are recognized further because they help to set the pace for others to follow. Leadership donors receive a thank you letter from the chair of the Alumni Fund or the president of the College. Though Williams does not publish a list of donors, nor do we have “gift clubs” that categorize donors by the size of their gift, we find that our leadership donors like end-of-the-Fund thank you gifts and the quiet distinction of being a leadership donor. At the end of each year’s Fund, those who gave $2,000 or more receive a Williams commemorative plate.

If you have classmates whom you would like to recognize because they have really stretched to be especially generous, the Alumni Fund can arrange to have a small gift sent as a special thank-you.