Charitable Giving to Colleges and Universities Flattened in 2020
“For the first time in a decade, total giving to higher education institutions fell slightly”
It’s not hard to see how this could happen. With the pandemic, campuses have been mostly empty. Schools still raised money, but the numbers flat-lined.
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Giving to Colleges and Universities Flattens in 2020
Charitable giving to colleges and universities was essentially flat in the 2020 fiscal year despite the pandemic. For the first time in a decade, total giving to higher education institutions fell slightly, from $49.6 billion to $49.5 billion, according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s latest annual giving survey.
Record-breaking totals last year were inflated by a $1.8 billion gift from Michael Bloomberg’s charities and foundations to Johns Hopkins University. If that gift were removed from the fiscal 2019 results, giving in fiscal 2020 would have increased by 3.6 percent, the survey found.
The Voluntary Support of Education Survey, released today, analyzes fundraising data from 873 colleges and universities for the 2020 fiscal year, which began July 1, 2019, and ended June 30, 2020. Surveyed institutions represent about a quarter of U.S. colleges and universities, but together they raised 78 percent of the estimated total voluntary support for U.S. higher education institutions in fiscal 2020. CASE estimates total support from nonrespondents using past data and nonrespondents’ institutional characteristics.
Giving from nonalumni individuals, which includes parents, increased by 4 percent, according to the survey. Aggregate giving from alumni, corporations and foundations fell in fiscal 2020. Combined, foundations and alumni make up 55 percent of total voluntary support for colleges and universities.
Contributions from other organizations increased by 7 percent in fiscal 2020 and edged past corporate giving for the first time. The rise in giving from other organizations can be attributed to payouts from donor-advised funds, according to Ann Kaplan, senior director of the Voluntary Support for Education Survey.
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Comments
I’m not seeing anything noteworthy here. Some giving rose, others declined. So without Bloomberg’s donation last year, giving would have risen at about the same rate? This FY will be more telling.