Giving to America’s colleges rose 6 percent in 2017, lifted by a surge in giving by alumni, according to data released Tuesday.
In total, higher-education institutions raised $43.6 billion, the largest amount ever counted by the annual survey since it began in 1957.
As in 2016, Harvard University topped the list, with $1.28 billion raised. Harvard is now in the final months of a capital campaign that has raised more than $8 billion far more than its goal of $6 billion.
Universities That Raised the Most in 2017
| 1 | Harvard University | $1.28 billion |
| 2 | Stanford University | $1.13 billion |
| 3 | Cornell University | $743.50 million |
| 4 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | $672.94 million |
| 5 | University of Southern California | $668.33 million |
| 6 | Johns Hopkins University | $636.91 million |
| 7 | University of Pennsylvania | $626.49 million |
| 8 | Columbia University | $603.08 million |
| 9 | Yale University | $595.89 million |
| 10 | Duke University | $581.05 million |
| 11 | New York University | $567.12 million |
| 12 | University of Washington | $553.89 million |
| 13 | University of California-Los Angeles | $550.93 million |
| 14 | University of Chicago | $483.47 million |
| 15 | University of Michigan | $456.13 million |
| 16 | University of Notre Dame | $451.43 million |
| 17 | University of California-San Francisco | $422.17 million |
| 18 | University of California-Berkeley | $404.59 million |
| 19 | Ohio State University | $401.85 million |
| 20 | Indiana University | $398.26 million |
Source: Council for Aid to Education
Colleges’ fundraising performed better than that for nonprofits over all. The most recent “Giving USA,” which covered 2016, saw only a 1.4 percent uptick in private support. (Most institutions in the new Voluntary Support of Education survey, conducted by the Council for Aid to Education, end their fiscal years in June.)
A lot of the increase in alumni support went to endowments, buildings, and other capital purposes: Such giving by alumni grew nearly 17 percent, compared with a nearly 9 percent increase in giving by alumni for current operations.
In 2016, giving by alumni was down by nearly 9 percent and by 6 percent among other individuals. But don’t call it a comeback, advises Ann Kaplan, a Council for Aid to Education vice president who oversees the annual study.
“If you average the two years together, the difference isn’t as dramatic,” she says.
Amount Raised From Different Sources, 2017
| Alumni | $11.37 billion | 26.1% |
| Nonalumni individuals | $7.86 billion | 18.0% |
| Corporations | $6.60 billion | 15.1% |
| Foundations | $13.13 billion | 30.1% |
| Other | $4.64 billion | 10.6% |
| TOTAL | $43.6 billion | |
Note: Percentages don’t add up to 100 due to rounding. “Other” includes grants from donor-advised funds.
Source: Council for Aid to Education
The jump in giving by alumni and other individuals is echoed by results from GiveCampus, an online fundraising platform used by hundreds of colleges and universities to attract small and midsize donations. “We did see an absolutely irrefutable increase in 2017 compared to 2016,” says Kestrel Linder, chief executive officer of GiveCampus.
Year over year, giving jumped 31 percent on the platform, he says. When December 2017 is compared with the same month in 2016, the increase was 52 percent.
Some of that jump can be attributed to more institutions investing in online fundraising, Linder says. But the gifts themselves also got bigger in 2017: up 22 percent in size from 2016, and up 28 percent in size from December to December.
Looking Ahead
Improved stock-market performance, beginning near the end of 2016 and continuing into last year, helped boost giving by individuals, according to Kaplan.
For the 434 institutions that answered survey questions about gifts of stock, the number of such gifts jumped nearly 17 percent in 2017 compared with 2016, and the value of stock gifts increased nearly 27 percent.
Corporations and foundations, which make giving decisions each year based on the prior year’s financial performance, didn’t match the increases in giving by individuals. In 2017, companies dropped their support to colleges by 2.4 percent from 2016, and foundations increased grants by just 2.9 percent.
Note: Percentage change is adjusted for inflation. “Other” includes grants made from donor-advised funds.
Source: Council for Aid to Education
If the stock market’s bull run continues over the coming months, the 2018 fiscal year could prove stronger still for colleges, Kaplan says. Corporations and foundations, coming off a strong 2017 for investments and beyond, will probably increase giving.
The federal tax overhaul passed in December, she suggests, will likely also push up 2018’s numbers.
“Individuals were advised to push some of their giving into the end of 2017, to take advantage of a better tax climate,” Kaplan says.
The doubling of the standard deduction and other changes in the law mean fewer people are likely to itemize on their tax returns — and therefore will not have the incentive offered by the charitable deduction.
Alumni donors typically support their alma maters for reasons that go well beyond tax savings, she says. But other elements of the new tax code may have an impact on higher-education fundraising.
For instance: This year, donors can no longer deduct gifts made to secure seats at college sports events.
“I’m sure everyone encouraged people to make those gifts in 2017 if they could,” Kaplan says. “For many institutions, that’s a big source of money.” And more than just athletics departments will likely be affected, she adds. For instance, “If you give a big gift to the mathematics department to help secure preferred seating.”
Linder is uncertain whether the new rules on athletic-event tickets will have much impact. “I am a season-ticket holder at Georgetown, and as such I’m required to make a charitable donation every year,” he says. He hasn’t given any thought to changing his support because of the new restrictions on deducting such gifts, he says, but he can’t guess how other donors will react to the changes.
Nevertheless, the revamped tax code, and its uncertain impact on charitable giving, have got fundraisers talking. Kaplan says, “Some institutions are thinking about revising their campaign goals, changing when they launch.”
Top 20
The 20 colleges that raised the most in 2017 accounted for just over 28 percent of the total raised by the more than 3,700 institutions surveyed. The share of the total raised by the top 20 universities has stayed approximately the same for the last several years.
“These organizations also have the highest expenditures and have the most diverse programming,” Kaplan says. “Some include medical schools and hospitals in their data. They are making the case for support. In some ways, I don’t think it’s that unusual.”
The list of top-20 colleges that raised the most from private sources changed little from 2016; Northwestern University dropped from the list, replaced by University of California at Berkeley, which raised $404.6 million in 2017. But Cornell University climbed from No. 6 to No. 3 in 2017, raising $743.5 million compared with 2016’s $588.3 million.
Two gifts of more than $100 million, both payments on pledges made in previous years, helped jack up Cornell’s 2017 total, Kaplan says. Gifts of at least $100 million made up 1.6 percent of all giving in 2017.
Top 20 Colleges by Alumni Participation in Giving, 2017
| 1 | Wellesley College | 49.0% |
| 2 | Williams College | 46.2% |
| 3 | Amherst College | 45.6% |
| 4 | College of the Holy Cross | 44.1% |
| 5 | Princeton University | 43.7% |
| 6 | Bowdoin College | 42.4% |
| 7 | Davidson College | 42.3% |
| 8 | Carleton College | 42.1% |
| 9 | Colby College | 41.9% |
| 10 | Hamilton College | 40.9% |
| 11 | Dartmouth College | 39.8% |
| 12 | Augustana College | 39.8% |
| 13 | Bates College | 39.8% |
| 14 | Colgate University | 39.3% |
| 15 | Randolph-Macon College | 37.5% |
| 16 | Centre College | 37.4% |
| 17 | Haverford College | 35.7% |
| 18 | Swarthmore College | 35.5% |
| 19 | University of Notre Dame | 35.3% |
| 20 | Washington and Lee University | 34.5% |
Source: Council for Aid to Education
Correction: The alumni participation table that appears at the end of this article has been changed. The College of Idaho misreported its data; it had a 29 percent alumni participation rate in 2017, not 62.2 percent. Washington and Lee University has been added to the table, ranked at No. 20.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Kestrel Linder’s name.
