College Giving

So, according to this article, there's good news and bad news with regards to college/university giving. The good news is that according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 25% of organizations on the "Philanthropy 400" list this year were institutions of higher education. (The "Philanthropy 400" is apparently a list of the 400 organizations that raise the most money...I had to look that one up.) So, the good news is that the top 400 organizations received an increase of 3.5% overall compared to 2010...and while this is nothing compared to what they were receiving prior to the recession, at least the earnings seemed to have increased.

Unfortunately (from my perspective, at least), the organizations that top the list are institutions that likely do not have the kind of need for giving the way other many other institutions do. (At the top of the list are Stanford, Harvard, Amherst and Johns Hopkins.) While giving for these institutions may have increased (for Amherst significantly so!), I'm guessing that there are other institutions out there that were previously dependent on alumni giving that are suffering because they are not able to generate the kind of revenue they were able to generate prior to the economic downturn.

I wish I could see the full list, but I do not have a subscription to The Chronicle of Philanthropy...it would be interesting to see the types of institutions on this list. I would bet that many of them are institutions that are considered by USNWR to be "the best" institutions. Still, I'm sure if you asked any of these institutions on this list, they would all say they still need more. Institutional endowments across the nation took a hit in 2009, and I think that an article we read in class this semester is correct in that there will always be a need for more money (even in more economically prosperous times), and that will always be able to be put to use. There is no such thing for an institution to receive too much money.....