For generations, a handful of large and small private institutions of higher education across the country have dominated the higher education fundraising landscape. They have cultivated loyal supporters who will share their fortunes — large and small —with colleges and universities to help them meet their immediate needs and long-term goals.
Evidence that there are billions in private hands to be shared was again confirmed this spring, when the Council for Aid to Education issued its annual report that monitors contributions to colleges and universities in the United States.
Contributions rose 7.6 percent over 2015 to $40.3 billion, the center reported in its Volunteer Support of Education (VSE) survey of more than 1,000 institutions across the nation. The top 20 fundraising institutions raised a hefty 28 percent of the funds, the center found. They are the “pacesetters,” as one college fundraiser describes them.
Those “pacesetters” have learned what attracts donors — stability in institutional leadership, accountability, and alumni and donor engagement. To better convey these characteristics to potential donors in recent decades, the pacesetters have invested millions of dollars into sophisticated, high-tech operations with hundreds of employees who conduct extensive research on alumni and other potential donors.
These well-oiled fundraising operations make thousands of phone calls, write scores of letters, make hundreds of visits to potential donors, get to know an institution’s alumni and supporters like family, and know their institution like the backs of their hands.
Today, hundreds of institutions across the country — large and small, public and private — see an urgent need to emulate the pacesetters, as states and corporations, the reliable underpinnings of support for higher education for the masses for nearly two centuries, cut their support of higher education.
