Scientific excellence is expensive.
Caltech’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation is very costly. The price of the most advanced instruments is much greater than in previous eras. These instruments need to be used by the brightest faculty and post-doc minds, supported by the brightest, most creative students. The total costs require the highest level of support.

Flexible funds are crucial to operations.
Major gifts, corporate and governmental support are primarily donated as restricted funds. These funds are usually research and person focused, not covering many of the ordinary operating costs such as electricity, building and equipment maintenance, Division discretionary needs, or student activities. Unrestricted gifts to the Alumni Fund allow Caltech the flexibility to meet pressing needs as they arise. The Institute must turn to the alumni to address these day-to-day needs.

Tuition and fees cover only small percentages of costs.
Tuition and fees cover only 3-4% of total operating costs and only about a third of the academic costs of educating the students. Caltech students are fortunate to receive a substantial amount of assistance, with a much lower proportion of that assistance in the form of loans than at many other schools. Some of this assistance comes from current use funds.

Make research dreams a reality.
Caltech carefully selects areas where its unique multi-disciplinary approach can have the greatest impact on scientific advances. It then hires the kind of minds that can dream about these advances and use their imaginations to follow research paths to make these dreams realities. Dreams that explore the tiniest reactions, the farthest corners of our planet and that lift our eyes and spirits to other planetary worlds. Some unrestricted current use funds are used as “seed money” for the most imaginative of these dreams, ones that cannot be funded by conventional means.

Provide benefits to society.
Much of the research that begins as dreams generates very practical results. These results vary from devices to “sniff out” land mines, to the production of cost effective fuel cells, to the uncovering of the genetic defects that create debilitating conditions that can then be reversed. Again, unrestricted funds are an essential component of maintaining these research efforts.

Help the quality of life of current students.
Unrestricted funds are used to provide additional scholarship help. Some funds go to support additional student researchers as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Current use funds support student activities like sports, clubs and music programs. Caltech has an incredibly extensive club and activities program for such a small school, in part because of the interest and support of alums.

Maintain the value of your degree.
Many alumni have commented that they were able to get very good initial positions because their Caltech degree was recognized and respected by employers. Undergraduates have found their Caltech degree an asset in getting accepted to the graduate school of their choice. Maintaining the excellence of Caltech includes the effect of maintaining the reputation of Caltech among colleges, universities and major employers. This will maintain the value of your degree.

Realize the impact your Caltech degree has had on your success.
Reunions are usually a good time for reflection about your Caltech experience. Part of that reflection will probably include the realization that you have applied the concepts you learned as a student to many different applications in your life, not restricted to your career path. The non-academic activities in which you participated also probably added to elements of your character that have fostered your successes in many areas. Finally, the friendships you developed at this school have also probably had an impact on many of the positive aspects of your life experience.

Alumni participation demonstrates confidence to other donors.
The five to six thousand alumni making mostly small gifts to the Institute have an impact far beyond the dollars donated. A major source of operational funds and money for capital projects come from a select group of major donors, foundations that support academic endeavors, and corporations looking to enhance their community service image as well as foster projects that might link with their own corporate goals. All three of these groups are inundated with requests and proposals. Caltech is faced with an increasingly competitive environment for these critical and major dollars. While the scientific quality of Caltech's proposals helps us to be successful, many funding groups are also influenced by other factors. Alumni support demonstrates the level of alumni confidence and appreciation graduates have for their alma mater. Every gift, no matter how small in dollar terms, is equally important in this regard.

Giving is one way of staying connected with the Institute.
A key element of the Alumni Fund program is the attempt to have alums or current students contact as many alumni as possible by phone. These conversations not only ask for support, but provide a means of conveying some of the current activities on campus to alumni. The mailings sent by the Fund include items of information about current Institute events in another effort to help alumni make connections, mostly via the Internet. Our solicitation attempts also provide alumni with opportunities to reflect on their Caltech experiences and make decisions to increase their contact with the Institute, perhaps by joining the Alumni Association or attending Seminar Day. Finally, accepting a volunteer opportunity with the Fund is another way of staying connected with Caltech, by making contact with fellow alums.

Giving opportunities also foster alumni interactions.
The Alumni Contact area uses alumni volunteers to call fellow alums, either to ask for their support or to thank those who have already made a gift. Our Student Initiatives Program allows alums in the Southern California area to come to events and interact both with students and with other alums. For more experienced volunteers, the opportunity to participate in Advisory Council Committees is another way the Fund fosters alumni interactions. Being a volunteer for the Fund also leads to information about other alumni events, such as those sponsored by the Alumni Association, leading to a final area of opportunity to interact with other alums.