College Fundraising Outlook Darkens After Surge

Feb. 25, 2009, Wall Street Journal — Colleges and universities led by Stanford, Harvard and Columbia raised a record $31.6 billion in fiscal year 2008, but their fund-raising outlook has darkened amid the economic crisis.

A survey of 1,052 institutions conducted by the nonprofit Council for Aid to Education shows college fund raising rose 6.2% last year. But that predated the sharp stock-market decline that began last September because most academic fiscal years end June 30. Fund raising in academia is highly sensitive to stock prices because many donors, for tax reasons, give appreciated stock instead of cash.