"A growing number of colleges are recasting the tradition of senior-class gifts by encouraging their graduating classes to focus more on giving - preferably money the college can spend as it sees fit," USA Today reports. "Though many colleges boast a long history of receiving fountains, benches or other tangible items each spring from their graduating classes, 'the smart thinking has been, 'Let's get away from stuff,'' says Bob Burdenski, a Chicago-based annual giving consultant who has worked with more than 100 colleges since 1994. He says more than 90% of his clients 'have moved in that direction in the last five years.' Some schools, including Stanford University and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., have offered donation programs for more than a decade. They're becoming more common as higher education budgets tighten and competition for charitable giving intensifies, says Rae Goldsmith, spokeswoman for the non-profit Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, whose members include campus fundraisers."