Students take issue with University’s heavy-handed approach to TSF letters

A room full of busy young people sit around tables, pens in hand, laboring meticulously to write perfectly neat thank-yous on pieces of paper. For this letter-writing exercise, it’s about style, not necessarily sincerity. And quantity is important. For each identical product produced, the students get a sum of money.

That’s not exactly the picture that comes to mind when you think of elite higher education donations, is it? Yet this is exactly how many students would describe an experience that is common here at Stanford — writing The Stanford Fund (TSF) letters.

Student groups can earn funding from TSF, which consists of gifts from alumni and other donors, by writing thank-you letters to individual donors. These letters must be handwritten neatly; one student can write a “template” letter, which can then be copied up to 12 times. Letters are submitted for inspection and each approved letter garners $25.

However, TSF letters are notorious because of the strict rules and regulations that govern their content and presentation. The official guide provided by The Stanford Fund Partnership Program lists dozens of requirements, including “Do not date the letter — either implicitly or explicitly,” “If there are more than two areas where the ink is very blotchy in an attempt to correct a mistake the letter will be denied” and a perennial favorite, “The ‘T’ in The Stanford Fund must be capitalized.” It also includes a detailed list of the six parts of a good letter, and numerous examples of common errors and reasons for letter denial.

As a result, some students absolutely abhor the process.

“I hate TSF Letters,” said Brennan Saeta ‘12. “They actually messed up my hand.”

Writing letters for dance group Kuumba was one of the few times Saeta, who is majoring in computer science, has needed to write something by hand since entering college, so he found it a literally painful process.

“Further, it’s not a productive use of anyone’s time. Will the donors continue to donate even if they receive a copy of a hand-written letter?” he asked. “Likely.”

Danny Neumann ‘10 agreed.

“Sure, I think [donors] should be thanked,” he said. “I just don’t think TSF’s methods work that well.”

While writing letters for the Savoyards, Neumann tried to make his own letters earnest, but was disheartened to see that many students were writing stilted, insincere missives just to meet the minimum requirements to receive funding.

“I don’t mean to sound overly negative, but the instructions come across as condescending, which I’m sure influences the tone of the letters,” Neumann said. “Stanford students can figure out what they need to write.”

“And also, I think the idea of a ‘handwritten letter’ is kind of cheesy — people use word processors these days,” he continued. “If they allowed students to print out letters and made the guidelines less restrictive, they’d be able to convey students’ gratitude rather than just hatred for TSF.”

Other students find the letters mildly irritating, but can see positives as well.

“Sometimes it just gets frustrating when you’re starting your letter for the fifth time because you forgot to capitalize ‘The,’ or something like that”, admitted Leslie Chang ‘12, but her experiences with letter-writing for the Taiwanese Cultural Society have been mostly positive.

“We had a party, so we all did it at the same time. [We] sat for a couple of hours and had snacks”, she said. “I don’t think it’s a bad system — it’s definitely an easy way for student groups to get funds they need.”

“Writing them with other people definitely makes it a better experience — I guess you could say, [it’s] a sort of bonding experience in sharing the TSF writing pain and frustration,” laughed Angela Kwok ‘13, who is famous among fellow Stanford Archery members for her amazingly neat letters and perfectionism. “I take a really long time writing TSF letters, like a little more than two per hour. But I think that’s just me, because I like to make it really neat and I’m afraid of messing up. I know some people who can write seven or eight in an hour.”

Kevin Tong ‘12 also started writing TSF letters during his freshman year for Stanford GRID, and initially found them insincere and annoying, but has since changed his mind.

“One caveat is that it has to be so perfect, but people have reacted well and made nice comments,” Tong said. “My friend’s dad got one and was like, ‘Is it really written by a student!?’ — it really means a lot to the donors.”

This is exactly what the program was designed to do, according to Scott Jahnke, director of Student and Young Alumni Development for TSF.

“Personalized letters demonstrate to donors that we appreciate their support, and they help to show the real impact of alumni giving on campus,” Jahnke wrote in an e-mail to The Daily. “This is a meaningful way for them to connect with current students and learn about how their gifts are contributing to the educational experience of Stanford today.”

Before the founding of the Partnership Program in 1995, “students were expending a great deal of energy to fundraise, and alumni were being overwhelmed by solicitations from ‘Stanford’ and student groups, in addition to the Office of Development,” Jahnke explained.

Some donors are happy with the letters they receive.

“Honestly, sometimes I find it hard to give money to Stanford because it is such a wealthy place in many ways,” wrote one pleased donor in a statement provided by TSF. “It helps to hear how that money nurtures you and your classmates’ minds, hearts and sense of self.”

Another happy TSF letter recipient appreciated that “in today’s ubiquitous utilization of computer-generated text . . . she took the effort to write by hand.”

But for alumnus Christopher Lin ‘09, who created a Facebook group entitled “I won’t donate to Stanford unless Stanford Fund letters are abolished,” the hand-written letters have garnered a backlash rather than solicited donations.

“Students [are] spending a few hours handwriting useless letters to me that I will never read anyway, giving up time that they could have spent sleeping or chilling out or studying or doing the things that donations are intended to support in the first place, like doing useful research or participating in student group activities,” Lin wrote on the group’s home page. “In the grand scheme of things, there are perhaps better ways to improve student happiness, but never has there been a black hole of time and energy more utterly devoid of meaning than the writing of a Stanford Fund letter.”

But alumni like Lin may be a minority — the Facebook group had only 37 members as of press time — and Jahnke argued that the program has helped to make it easier and more efficient for groups to receive funding. He added that continuous efforts for improvement are being made.

“Event shifts, thank-you calling and videos are options that have been incorporated as the program has evolved,” he said.

Feedback on the student end about these alternatives, however, has been varied.

Chang feels that “phone thank-yous might be kind of cheesy or awkward if people don’t do them right,” while Saeta “was about to make a video, but never got around to it.”

And for Paul Chen ‘13, the videos still seem like hard work.

“Letters are all right,” he admitted.