There’s an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education this morning about the billion-dollar fundraising campaigns at many large universities.
As you can imagine, the campaigns aren’t going well. The donors who either have pledged money or would have pledged money were hurt by the financial crash and are rethinking their donations.
The worst part? Even if the economy starts to recover over the next year, universities will still see a “significant dip” in giving because many of the large donations are year-long affairs. Some universities, like Brown, are even negotiating with their donors to get pledged money sooner at a discount. For example, if Mr. Moneybags has pledged $50 million in 2011, the university might persuade him to give $40 million now.
At the same time, universities are seeing a surge in enrollment numbers as people who are out of work look to learn the skills to start off on a new career path.
Of course, donations aren’t the only way that higher education is funded, but it helps, especially in a time when governments are looking for ways to cut spending and finding colleges to be easy targets.
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Michael Becker has been blogging about academia, digital culture and journalism since 2005. He is the Web editor of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Universities finding donations are becoming fewer and farther between
There’s an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education this morning about the billion-dollar fundraising campaigns at many large universities.
As you can imagine, the campaigns aren’t going well. The donors who either have pledged money or would have pledged money were hurt by the financial crash and are rethinking their donations.
The worst part? Even if the economy starts to recover over the next year, universities will still see a “significant dip” in giving because many of the large donations are year-long affairs. Some universities, like Brown, are even negotiating with their donors to get pledged money sooner at a discount. For example, if Mr. Moneybags has pledged $50 million in 2011, the university might persuade him to give $40 million now.
At the same time, universities are seeing a surge in enrollment numbers as people who are out of work look to learn the skills to start off on a new career path.
Of course, donations aren’t the only way that higher education is funded, but it helps, especially in a time when governments are looking for ways to cut spending and finding colleges to be easy targets.
Related posts: