Each Valentine's Day more than 25,000 Miami University alumni are reminded of their connection to Miami and the fateful impact it had on their life.

Assistant Vice President for Alumni Relations Raymond Mock said the annual valentine cards sent to Miami mergers-the pool of university alumni that have married each other-is not inexpensive, but the return value is worth it.

"The connectivity to the university directly benefits the number of contributions," Mock said.

Associate Vice President for University Advancement Brad Bundy agreed and said Miami is beginning a month-long research study on the likelihood mergers will donate more than non-mergers.

The study is also taking a broader look at the number of alumni who give based on their engagement with the university during their college years and beyond. Bundy said that involvement in Greek organizations, living off-campus, attending alumni chapter events around the country and being a Miami merger all impact the amount of giving and increase the tendency that one will give.

"It is all factual and correct that mergers give at a higher rate than non-mergers, are more involved in the university, are more likely to come back to campus and are more likely to encourage their kids to attend Miami," Bundy said.

Miami's next step is to gather the data and numbers to support this, Bundy said. There will eventually be more than 20 data points that identify alumni activity. This data will be available by the end of February.

Jennifer Clark, director of membership and marketing for the office of alumni relations, said the merger valentines sent out each year are a connecting point for alumni.

"When Miami asks for money for the Bicentennial Student Center, hopefully the mergers will remember that connecting point and donate in return," Clark said.

Clark and Mock both said that several e-mails are received from mergers thanking the university for the annual valentines.

Clark said the office of alumni relations recently received an e-mail from an alumnus in Michigan, belatedly thanking Miami for 40 years of valentines that "bring back warm memories on a cold day."

Bundy said that when a merger is considering donating a major gift-one that is more than $25,000-Miami approaches both spouses, usually face-to-face via a development officer. This usually results in either one large gift that the couple agrees to fund or two gifts in the areas of interest of the alumni.

"The two gifts occur when the spouses are from different colleges and schools of the university or are interested in separate programs at Miami," Bundy said.

Bundy also said that when the university is notified that a merger has formed, their records are combined. Bundy said this is the economically smart thing to do, but that a lot of universities still have separate mailing lists for each alumnus.