The cost of these events far exceeded the around $500 most student groups get in grants from the Undergraduate Council or the College.

One reason for the campaign's comparative financial success may be that other groups simply fail to take advantage of their alumni resources.

"I've been on the finance committee for two years, and have been through hundreds of group applications, and I rarely saw student groups making good use of alumni," says Kyle D. Hawkins '02, former chair of the council's finance committee.

The donors for Jesus Week, most of them Harvard alums or parents of students, say they felt compelled to give money in order to boost the visibility of religious students on campus. Some say they are concerned that Harvard is suspicious--if not hostile--toward overt displays of religion at the University.

"People felt that when they came to Harvard, they were moving from a childhood of superstition into an adulthood of rationality," says Mark S. Campisano '75, recalling that many of his classmates felt that they had outgrown the religion that they learned as children.

Campisano, who was not religious while he was in college, now heads up a group at the Harvard Club of New York City that discusses the Christian perspective on ethical dilemmas men face in their business lives.

He says he is worried that Harvard students, caught up in understanding the world in a rational and deductive manner, might miss out on some of its spiritual truths.

"I felt that I had been very hostile towards Christianity when I was in college, and I wanted to make sure that it was getting a fair hearing today," he says.