Individual donors reopened their checkbooks in 2017 as a strong stock market fueled rising personal giving that in turn powered an increase in contributions to higher education institutions.
Colleges and universities raised a total of $43.6 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, according to results from the latest version of the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey from the Council for Aid to Education, which is being released today. The fund-raising total is up 6.3 percent from 2016 -- 3.7 percent after adjusting for inflation.
It is the highest fund-raising total recorded in the survey’s six-decade history. The 6.3 percent year-over-year increase nearly quadrupled the rate of growth between 2015 and 2016, which was 1.7 percent in last year’s survey.
Personal giving by alumni proved to be responsible for much of the growth in 2017. Alumni giving increased by 14.5 percent, to $11.37 billion. Nonalumni giving rose by 4.5 percent, to $7.86 billion.
That’s a turnaround from last year, when both alumni and nonalumni giving dropped significantly. But the swings balance out over time, according to Ann E. Kaplan, who directs the annual survey and is vice president at the Council for Aid to Education.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/06/personal-giving-pushes-donations-colleges-and-universities-new-level-2017