Don Frost ’83 believes the same spirit of community that infuses life and learning at Carleton is what drives alumni support for the Alumni Annual Fund (AAF). “It’s in our DNA,” he says. “We give back.”
Frost is keenly aware that alumni gifts helped fund his own Carleton education, and he’s eager to pass that support on to the next generation. As chair of the AAF board, he’s leading the charge toward an ambitious $8.2 million goal for the 2014–15 fiscal year. “Proceeds from tuition and the endowment have never been sufficient to fund everything that makes a Carleton education special,” says Frost, an attorney from Washington, D.C.
“The annual fund fills the gap and allows Carleton to compete above its weight class, so to speak.”
As a top 10 liberal arts college, Carleton is competing against schools that often have much bigger endowments. “When you give to Carleton, your dollars really matter, no matter the size of your gift,” Frost says. “It takes a village of thousands of alumni, parents, and friends coming together to support the annual fund, and every gift is essential. Gifts under $100 amass to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.”
Every gift will help the annual fund meet its $8.2 million goal and put Carleton back on top of U.S. News & World Report’s alumni satisfaction list (measured by the percentage of alumni who give to the college), a distinction Carleton proudly held from 2002 to 2011.
In the end, Frost knows that the annual fund is and always has been about more than dollars and cents—it’s about relationships. “Annual fund volunteers don’t just ask for money,” says Frost. “They reach out to fellow alumni to talk about what’s going on at Carleton and what’s going on in their respective lives. We all believe in Carleton and in the students, and we can remember how Carleton fundamentally changed us and empowered us while we were students. We’re so different in the life paths we’ve chosen, but we still have a common set of values. And that makes our conversations fascinating and rewarding.”