The factors that Hispanic alumni/ae give for making gifts to a public institution of higher education

Philanthropy is critical to the growth of institutions of higher education. Public institutions of higher education have relied on alumni/ae as a secondary source of funding. Less than 50 percent of funding for public universities now comes from state funding; thus, public universities rely more on philanthropy from alumni/ae (Rivas-Vasquez, 1995).; Institutions of higher education have to turn to all possible sources for funding. One potential source is Hispanic alumni/ae. As funding for institutions of higher education become scarcer, gifts from Hispanic alumni/ae are likely to become more important for helping institutions and their development specialists reach fundraising goals. Hispanic attendance at and graduation from public universities is increasing, and development professionals need to understand how to cultivate, solicit and steward this community of potential philanthropists. Currently, there are few studies that describe Hispanic philanthropy to institutions of higher education. "While the for profit [organization] has aggressively targeted marketing efforts to Hispanics, who represent {dollar}228 billion in annual domestic purchasing power, the nonprofit sector has been slow to craft approaches designed to attract Hispanic donors" (Rivas-Vasquez, 1995, page 116). "Though Hispanics might not reflect the Western idea of philanthropy, all cultures have a history of some type of charity or almsgiving" (Rivas-Vasquez, 1995, page 44).; Due to the nature of this study, the factors used in the survey instrument reflect the three standard stages in the cycle of philanthropy: cultivation, solicitation and stewardship. A survey was used in this study. Because of the nature of the question addressed in this study and the lack of prior research, the researcher developed a cross-sectional survey instrument administered on-line; the cross-sectional approach makes observations at a single point in time (Babbie, 1999). The instrument was pre-tested for validity and reliability. The survey instrument has 30 items divided into two parts. The first section includes 20 items concerning the attitudes and experience of respondents relative to higher education. These items measure attitudes utilizing a five-point Likert response scale ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly disagree" (5). The second part of the survey instrument related to demographic information. The population consisted of 350 Hispanic alumni/ae donors who had made gifts to the University of Houston. These individuals were identified through records from the University of Houston's Office of Development. The sample for the study numbered 28.; The results and discussion may assist development professionals at four-year public institutions to refine their cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for this growing and increasingly important group of potential donors.