The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

Despite Loan Debt And Job Worries Colleges Will Ask Seniors To Donate

It’s not an easy pitch. The private university in Winchester, Va., charges more than $35,000 a year for tuition and other expenses, and more than 85 percent of a recent graduating class had student loan debt. But like most universities, Shenandoah relies on donations. It wants to train soon-to-be-alumni to give generously.many private and public schools are asking students for donations. In part these solicitations continue the long tradition of senior-class gifts. But the phenomenon appears to be growing, college officials say, and students are giving at what are described as record rates. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/colleges-hit-up-graduating-seniors-for-donations/2012/04/30/gIQAhxpesT_story.html

Super-Wealthy Elite Colleges Excel At Fundraising

For the 99 percent of colleges, it was a pretty good fundraising year. For the 1 percent of super-wealthy elite schools, it was a much-better one that catapulted them even farther ahead of the pack. The latest annual college-fundraising figures, out today, show that donations to colleges and universities rose 8.2 percent in fiscal 2011, topping the $30 billion mark for just the second time, and improving many schools’ financial footing after several lean years because of the economic downturn. Of the $30.3 billion collected by colleges and universities nationwide, $8.2 billion — or 27 percent — was raised by the top 20 institutions. Read more at:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120217/BUSINESS/120218020/College-fundraising-up-2011-rich-get-richer 

Endowments Did Well In 2011 But Have Yet To Fully Make Up Lost Ground

College and university endowments made gains in the fiscal year that ended in June, but many are still struggling to make up ground they lost in 2008 and 2009. Data gathered from 823 U.S. colleges and universities show that the institutions' endowments returned an average of 19.2 percent for the 2011 fiscal year. The donations that colleges rely on to replenish their coffers also have not rebounded from pre-recession levels. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-college-endowments-show-growth-for-fy-2011-20120131,0,7318763.story

Pepper Spray Incident Has Not Slowed Down Fundraising Effort

The infamous pepper-spray incident at UC Davis in November brought a lot of negative attention to the campus. But it didn't hurt fundraising – at least not yet. Alumni and businesses gave $19.3 million to the Campaign for UC Davis during December, up 15 percent from the previous month and 30 percent from December 2010, according to a Bee review of university records. The campaign is a multi-year effort to raise $1 billion from at least 100,000 donors. Read more at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/29/4222834/public-eye-donations-to-uc-davis.html

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/29/4222834/public-eye-donations-to-uc-davis.html#storylink=cpy

 

IHEs Must Respect The Wishes Of Donors

The five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day are the equivalent of "Black Friday" for charities, which receive nearly half of their annual donations during the holiday season, according to a Charity Navigator survey. Colleges and universities are no exception. Higher education institutions always have been among America's most successful fundraisers. Regrettably, donor intent abuses by colleges and universities are all too familiar. Read more at:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-19/news/bs-ed-donor-intent-20111219_1_donor-intent-colleges-wealthiest-universities

In Tough TImes One Angel Donor Can Make A Difference For Colleges

While he’s best known for forensics work on high-profile cases such as the O.J. Simpson and Jon Benet Ramsey investigations, there’s another Henry Lee behind the scenes: an “angel donor,’’ one of countless low-key, often anonymous benefactors nationwide whose gifts or influence have helped launch or save their favored colleges’ most critical programs. As the economy has made fundraising more challenging in recent years, some universities are being buoyed by longtime angel donors whose quiet philanthropy is plugging budget holes. Their gifts occasionally come so anonymously that the schools do not even know their benefactors’ identities right away. Read more at:
http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-14/news/29887096_1_angel-donors-forensics-berea-college

New President Shows Support With A Big Donation

She only just arrived, and she's already making a major donation. Susan Herbst took over as president of theUniversity of Connecticut on June 15. She hasn't even been inaugurated yet. But on Wednesday, the university announced that she and her husband, Douglas Hughes, a marketing consultant, are donating $100,000 to create a scholarship for needy students in the arts and humanities.Read more at:
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-herbst-gift-0707-20110706,0,4878275.story

Public IHEs Find They Must Turn To Private Donors As State Funding Shrinks

As state subsidies for higher education are dwindling, public colleges in the Washington region and elsewhere are learning they must tap private funds to survive. Such fundraising campaigns, echoed in other states, come as legislatures across the nation are cutting higher education budgets.Per-student state funding has dwindled from $8,035 in 2000 to $6,451 in 2010 nationwide. Most public colleges have relied on state funding and student tuition for nearly all their revenue. Now, they are looking to build other funding sources, turning to private donors with unprecedented vigor. Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/public-colleges-tap-private-funds-as-state-support-dwindles/2011/06/29/AGHiWQvH_story.html

Contributions To Colleges On The Rebound

Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania are leading a rebound in contributions to colleges as donors who held back during the recession are writing checks again following two years of a rising stock market. Gifts to universities will probably increase 5.7 percent in the fiscal year ending June 30, after slumping the past two years. Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-17/yale-leads-rebound-in-donations-as-gifts-multiply.html

UNLV President Reaches Out To Business Community As Retrenchment Solution

UNLV President Neal Smatresk has become increasingly strategic in trying to protect the university from budget cuts, drawing upon advice that he must sell the financially troubled university to business and political players as well as the broader population. The goal is to build a base of support for an institution that could lose as many as 315 positions in the latest round of cuts, which would bring their total to more than 800 within the past two years. Read more at:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/apr/21/unlvs-overture-business-execs-includes-tour/