Princetonians share their thoughts on what giving means to them.

A contribution represents more than just a financial dividend. A contribution is a sign of gratitude, pride and faith in the future of the University; Princeton will live on for generations on the strength of its reputation, faculty and resources, but it can only do so if the alumni collectively support its existence...

If you loved your time here [at Princeton], are grateful for the education you received, and hope that Princeton maintains its position at the acme of academia, then you should show your support regardless of the size of your contribution. Through the devotion of its alumni Princeton will live on for generations not only as an academic powerhouse, but also as a school that provokes a loyalty that defies even economics.

(originally published in the Daily Princetonian)

[I have given] little enough, I fear, relative to what I gained from those four years... I deeply respected the education, and the model of serious minds, provided by numbers of the professoriate, who paid us undergraduates more attention than we deserved. They were somehow always in the back of my mind as I interviewed candidates for appointments at Carleton and Bowdoin, where I had a finger on the scale.

I've come to know slightly a few of today's exemplars: Jim McPherson, Robert Fagles and Elaine Pagels. They too are exceptional and are at least as splendid as the best we knew. I've only corresponded with Shirley Tilghman, but that exchange and all I've read make clear that she is an uncommon mind and person. Princeton is clearly still a university of the size and specific gravity that make a light in the darkness... Princeton is clearly ground as fertile and sustaining as ever it was.

Every gift to Annual Giving from alumni, parents, and friends, whatever its size, makes a valuable and immediate difference to Princeton. Annual Giving is at the core of the tradition of giving back that connects Princetonians of every class and era.

to Annual Giving and the Parents Fund