I think I directed a question along your lines to Frank in the shout box during the last fund drive. IIRC, he said it has always been a goal of donations, not ever a dollar goal.
It's also "staged."
It goes something like this:
To start off, there's a block of donors at the beginning, say, 250 out of the 1,000 wanted.
The next few days, 250 donors crawl in, but my fellow alum acknowledges only, say, 150, of them.
And then, another block, say 250 again, come in, but my fellow alum acknowledges, say, only half of them.
By the time he shows 700 (or somesuch number), he's actually reached the goal of 1,000, and possibly even passed it.
As the donors pile in, the posted rate slows down near the end of the week, the point being ONLY ONE MORE DAY TO GO, AND WE'RE SHORT 100 (or 80 0r 75 or 90) DONORS. SO HURRY UP AND DONATE, AS THERE'S ONLY ONE MORE DAY, AND WE'RE SHORT OF THE GOAL!
And then exactly at the last hour of the last night, 1,000 is magically reached.....although Skins probably has gotten 1,281 or 1,134 or 1,089 in the bag.
Notice, please, no fund drive has ever ended excepting at the scheduled time, and it always ends on target.
Never an exception I've ever seen, the past 9.92 years.
