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“It’s not about how much you give. Just give.”
The Bruttomesso Participation Challenge
Raymond I. Bruttomesso ’56, drives an old Ford Escort station wagon and lives modestly with his wife, Susan, in Atlanta. Ray and Susie don’t care much about material things. They do, however, care about education, and support Holy Cross very generously. The latest demonstration of their support comes in the form of an alumni participation challenge: The Bruttomesso Participation Challenge. The Bruttomessos will give the College $500,000 at the end of the fiscal year in June 2007 if alumni give at a rate of at least 51 percent.
For many years the College enjoyed an esteemed status among its peers for consistently achieving over 50 percent participation in alumni giving. In recent years, however, participation has slipped to 48 and 49 percent. The Bruttomessos want to change that.
“My wife and I have a keen interest in private education,” says Ray. “My father never saw high school and my mother didn’t get to finish high school, but my parents instilled in my brothers and me the value of a good education.”
“I am not the richest guy in my class, by far, but I have been very lucky,” he says—which is why he gives back. The message he hopes alumni will hear through this effort is: “It’s not about how much you give. Just give something.”
Alumni participation rates matter to the College for many reasons. The rate at which alumni give is one measure used to gauge alumni satisfaction with their educational experience. Participation rates are used by U.S. News and World Report in calculating college rankings. Many foundations won’t consider proposals from institutions with less than 50 percent participation. The Bruttomessos would like to see the College back where it belongs.
Though Ray credits everyone around him for his good fortune in life, evidence of his hard work and perseverance is hard to ignore. While working at a bank as a young man, he received a scholarship that paid for most of his four years at Holy Cross.
After securing admission to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and knowing that he couldn’t afford tuition, Ray went South to plead his case to the dean.
“My father always said I had more nerve than brains,” Bruttomesso says. He received the aid he needed and went on to earn his M.B.A. After finishing at Wharton, a conversation with a Holy Cross Jesuit motivated him to enroll at Boston College, where he earned a law degree.
Before entering private practice as a tax adviser, Bruttomesso gained experience at Arthur Andersen, Peat Marwick, and Touche Ross. He was vice president at The Crum & Forster Insurance Co. and tax counsel at Allstate Insurance and at the Hartford Insurance Group. He also taught in the M.B.A. program at the University of Connecticut.
Bruttomesso hopes the effect of his challenge will be an improvement in the number of donors, particularly in the younger classes. His mantra is: “Remember who you are and where you came from.”
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