Questions and Answers

Why should I support the Golden Reunion Gift Program?
The project provides class members with a special opportunity to commemorate the 50th anniversary of our graduation and to make a personal, lasting contribution to Rice. The leadership that your gift provides directly affects the educational experience of today’s students and influences the goals that future Golden Reunion alumni will set for their reunion projects.

Why should I support the Rice Annual Fund for Student Life and Learning?
Year after year, the Annual Fund delivers financial resources that support scholarships, graduate fellowships, residential college life, library resources, and a range of initiatives that otherwise might not be funded. A gift to the Annual Fund sustains and enhances Rice’s unique, high-caliber learning environment and is the best way to ensure that students receive the most rewarding experience possible.

What is the goal for the Golden Reunion Gift Program? How long do we have to accomplish it?
During our 45-year reunion project, 71 percent of the class participated in reunion giving, an all-time record for a non-golden class. Our goal for our Golden Reunion is 80 percent participation. Our gift will be presented at Rice Homecoming and Reunion 2010 and is being raised between July 1, 2009, and October 16, 2010. Class members’ designated gifts to other Centennial Campaign priorities will be recognized in the comprehensive reunion gift but will not count toward the dollar goal for the Annual Fund.

How will we meet our goals for the Rice Annual Fund?
Each classmate will consider first a gift to the Annual Fund. Gifts may be made outright or as a multi-year pledge. The entire pledge is counted in the reunion gift.

Is there also a goal for the class’s comprehensive reunion gift?
No. The sky is the limit. After giving to the Annual Fund, many donors will consider legacy gifts that are designated to match their own interests with the wide-ranging priorities of the Centennial Campaign.

Do my gifts to the Rice Annual Fund through the Golden Reunion Gift Program count in the Centennial Campaign?
Yes. President Leebron has made it a presidential priority to double the resources raised annually by the Annual Fund to $8.2 million by 2012. To meet this challenge, our goal is to reach $7 million during fiscal year 2010. Gifts to the Annual Fund for the Golden Reunion Gift Program are essential to accomplishing the $1 billion goal of the Centennial Campaign.

Do my gifts to the Golden Reunion Gift Program count toward recognition by a giving society?
Yes. Persons who annually contribute $1,000 or more to the Rice Annual Fund will be recognized by the appropriate giving society.

  Parliament Society   $50,000
  Sallyport Society   $25,000
  Edgar Odell Lovett Society   $10,000
  Brown Society   $5,000
  Charter Society   $2,500
  Founder’s Society   $1,000

Do my gifts to other projects or my dues to friends groups count in the reunion gift that is presented by the Class of 1960?
The gift that is presented at homecoming will be comprehensive of both your gifts to the Rice Annual Fund and your designated gifts, such as to capital projects, scholarships and other endowments, athletics, and dues for friends groups. But the Golden Reunion Giving committee’s goal for the Annual Fund can be achieved with only undesignated gifts.

May we make deferred gifts to the Golden Reunion Gift Program?
Yes. There are several ways to support the program, and we wish to help you find the method of giving that matches your needs and accomplishes your wishes. A variety of deferred gift options are available, each with benefits for you and for Rice. Please contact the Office of Gift Planning at 713-348-4624 if you have questions or desire additional information concerning deferred giving to this project.

How may a gift or pledge be paid to the program?
Rice accepts the following forms of payment:

  1. Check
  2. Credit card: You may pay online at rice.edu/centennialcampaign or by contacting a reunion committee member or staff.
  3. Securities: You may avoid capital-gains taxes by giving appreciated securities.
 
    
To make a multi-year pledge to the Annual Fund, please complete this form and email it to giving@rice.edu so that we may confirm your commitment.		  
 
    
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