Virginia State University, the majority black school, has spent millions of state dollars, renovating buildings, in part, to heighten school pride among alumni they hope will respond with granting generous donations.

The plan is working: Alumni support has risen to 10 percent from 7 percent from five years ago. Individual gifts have increased from hundreds of dollars to thousands.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “black colleges are refreshing outdated efforts to solicit former students, adding specialized staff, crafting personalized ‘asks,’ improving campuses and increasingly using Internet outreach to augment shrinking state and private funds with alumni dollars.”

Nowadays, more blacks are graduating and younger alumni are moving into a broader range of careers from the schools that are no longer mostly teachers colleges.

According to the Chronicle, “at Wiley College, in East Texas, officials will use a nearly $840,000 grant from the United Negro Fund to help scout major gift prospects a year, create new online giving opportunities and beef up staff.”

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