A new report shows that more than 40% of colleges and universities are expecting to see significant decreases in fundraising in the months and years ahead due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, “What 110 advancement leaders think lies ahead for university fundraising during COVID-19,” authored by Jeff Martin, senior director with EAB’s Advancement Forum, surveyed chief advancement officers and associate and assistant vice presidents about their philanthropic projections for fiscal year 2020 (ending on June 30 for most institutions) and fiscal year 2021. The surveyed university fundraising professionals came from a range of institution types — small, large, public, private, undergraduate and graduate — although there is no data specific to minority-serving institutions
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Martin has been fielding questions from colleges and universities about how to engage alumni in a remote environment and what to do with frontline fundraisers whose jobs entail being out on the road and meeting with donors.
“The colleges and universities that my colleagues and I serve needed to figure out where they might be headed,” said Martin. “They’re coming off of about 10 years of pretty consistent fundraising growth.”
EAB, previously known as the Education Advisory Board, is an education research, technology and managed services company that works with more than 1,700 schools, colleges and universities. The survey revealed that the general consensus is that higher education fundraising will experience a dramatic drop and universities are looking for ways to shift strategies and resources.
“The bread and butter of a lot of advancement divisions’ strategy, namely in-person visits and in-person events, have been rendered impossible” due to the pandemic, said Martin.
For instance, traveling to meet with potential donors is part of the job of Dr. Shawnta Friday-Stroud, vice president of university advancement and executive director of the FAMU Foundation at Florida A&M University, a historically Black institution. Close to a dozen planned trips for Friday-Stroud and her team were canceled due to COVID-19.
