$26 billion endowment, one library fine at a time

I'm back in DC after a lovely and quite relaxing Thanksgiving break. I'm starting to get over my Thanksgiving hangover (you know, the feelings of dread, nausea, and resentment about getting back to work just as people with sufficient alcohol feel about sobriety) and am going to sleep shortly so that I don't feel like I got hit by a truck when my alarm goes off in the morning. In lieu of a real post (though I have some doozies cooking, just you wait), I offer the following story:

I graduated in June and through some glitch in the electronic bills system, was left with a $1.50 credit on my account. After receiving enough e-bills, my mother wrote the following email to my school (reprinted without permission):

To: Student_Billing@edu
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:38:09 EDT

Judy graduated in June. Her account shows a balance of $1.50 so we keep getting e-mails from Student Billing. Please consider the $1.50 a contribution and stop sending us the e-mails. :)

Thank you very much.

Today I received the following letter on official stationary:

On behalf of the President and Fellows, I thank you for your generosity and acknowledge the following contribution. A check/cash contribution of $1.50 was received on October 24, 2007. Per your request, this has been distributed as follows: $1.50 to Faculty of Arts & Sciences for the Senior Gift for Scholarships. Your support is greatly appreciated. Please retain this document for your tax records.

Since I still find it too funny to write anything "deep," a few take-aways:

1. They truly mean it when they say that no donation is too small.
2. I wonder if people really do turn in these sorts of letters to the IRS.
3. Supposing the paper, printing, envelope, and stamp all cost $0.50, do I really want to donate to an institution with at least 33% overhead?

Nighty night!