Increased Alumni Giving at Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities: The Case of Morgan State University

In 2010, when David Wilson became president of Morgan State University, the public, historically Black, institution in Maryland had an alumni giving rate similar to most public HBCUs, and in fact, similar to most public, regional institutions — 6 percent (Gasman & Bowman, 2010). Today, in 2015, Morgan State boasts a 17 percent alumni giving rate, which is above many private HBCUs and also larger than many public, regional institutions in the U.S. overall.* Given the small infrastructures that most HBCUs have in the fundraising area, Morgan included, and the fact that the nation has just come through a recession, I wanted to dig a bit deeper and find out what Morgan did to have such an impressive alumni giving increase.