Facts at a Glance

Organization

We are an organization of like-minded people who wish to contribute for the welfare of the USTC as well as the entire alumni community. USTCAF is a non-profit, non-partisan organization registered in Delaware, USA. It is also an IRS 501(c)(3) organization with tax-exemption status. All donations are thus tax-deductable.

Elected Officers

USTCAF is managed by a Governing Board (GB) elected by all USTCAF members. An election is held every year in February. All GB members are volunteers without pay.

Grass Roots

We are not an organization of "a few rich men." In fact, according to our 1999 survey, one third of our members are graduate students, with annual income of $25,000 and below. The median donation amount is $66, while the smallest donations was $5. We appreciate small contributions as much as large ones.

Minimum Expense

The foundation's expense/donation ratio is 2.79% since inception. Most of the expense was incurred by the cost of AF T-shirts, a gift to all qualified donors. The T-shirt program was stopped in 2002. Recent non-schoarship expenses are the fee paid to Paypal.com for donations by credit card. For example, in 2003, the total operation cost is $233, only 0.6% of the total amount of scholarship awarded that year.

100% Award Distribution

Although USTC act as the intermediary for our awards, no overhead is taken by the school. In fact, USTC put up matching fund to match many of USTCAF awards. The entire amount of the awards goes to the recipients.

Steady Growth

Thanks to the participation of more and more enthusiastic alumni, AF grows steadily since it was founded on June 20, 1995. In several years, we received over $400,000 from more than 1200 alumni and friends. The AF is actively seeking ideas on new programs to put the fund to good use.

Current Scholarships

Each year, USTCAF awards about 30 outstanding new USTC students, about 4 young faculty members of USTC and about 80 Goodwill Scholarship awardees based mainly on financial needs.