The Alumni Office wants you to remember that number – 834. “Can we start making T-shirts right now,” jokes Patti Cawood, Director of Alumni Relations. “We are so excited about this simple idea that can make a huge impact at Lee.”

To explain, Cawood describes conflicting impulses she hears while traveling for the university: “Our alums love Lee, but they can’t really believe their support would matter. I hear it all the time.” And Cawood says she understands what they mean. “Let’s face it, $100 isn’t going to build much of a nursing building.”

She says that one afternoon while brainstorming about something else, an “ah-ha” moment happened in the office. “Someone said, ‘We’re not big fish. We’re a big group of small fish.’” With that an idea was born.

“Someone grabbed a calculator and figured out that if 1/3 of alumni gave $100 we would raise more than $1,000,000 every year for student support! That’s incredible.” Cawood said the final step came when they recognized that most alumni could handle $100 broken down over 12 months. “That’s where $8.34 comes from. It’s an automatic monthly deduction that even I can handle.”

Two years ago the Alumni Office did a soft launch of the idea in the Torch magazine. Since that time more than 200 alumni have become 834 donors. “That doesn’t sound like many, but trust me, I know Lee alums and this is only the beginning!”

For more information, contact [email protected], or click here to give online.