Education

In case you missed it, a Wall Street billionaire donated $400 million to Harvard on Wednesday. That donation, by hedge fund manager John Paulson, was Harvard's largest gift of all time and added to Harvard's already mammoth $36.4 billion endowment. Never one to mince words, famed author Malcolm Gladwell pounced on the news on Twitter,…

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson donated $400 million to Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the New York Times reports. Harvard’s engineering school, which is expanding across the river from Cambridge, Mass., will be renamed the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Tom Landrum, former vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Georgia, discusses the importance of an annual fund and engaging younger alumni. In this conversation with Jeff Jowdy, founder of Lighthouse Counsel, Landrum covers:

• Importance of annual giving
• Challenges in higher education annual-fund programs
• Why some fundraising programs are directed at younger alumni
• The importance of student-directed development appeals
• What higher education fundraisers need to do to engage younger alumni

Lincoln Financial Group announced that it is now accepting applications for its 2014 Lincoln's Legacy Award from education-focused nonprofits. The award recognizes an organization that exemplifies President Abraham Lincoln's legacy of freedom, opportunity and equality, and whose programs impact increased high school graduation rates and college readiness.

College endowments rebounded in the 2013 fiscal year, with an average increase in value of 11.7 percent over a year earlier, according to the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments benchmark survey. The increase was in stark contrast with 2012, when their average values fell by 0.3 percent. The annual survey is compiled jointly by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and the Commonfund Institute, the education and research arm of the Commonfund, an institutional-investment firm.

Blackbaud announced the availability of the 2012 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance, a report that provides a summary of key performance indicators of annual funds at more than 100 public and private institutions. “Fundraising for higher education annual funds in fiscal year 2012 can best be described as stable, or flat,” said Shaun Keister, author of the report and vice chancellor of development at UC Davis.

Back in January 2007, Julie Tolan, then vice president of university advancement at Marquette University, talked with FundRaising Success about the Jesuit Catholic university's fundraising, including how the university focused on relevance rather than its need to exceed campaign goals by $100 million.

The needs and pressure for additional private dollars for public school foundations are great. The days of a single operational focus for a public school foundation are over. Make every constituency own philanthropy, and seek to broaden your impact. The teachers and children are waiting.

More two-year schools are trying to follow a path long traveled by four-year public and private universities. However, some experts say the community colleges face special difficulties since many alumni tend to give loyalty and cash to the four-year colleges where they subsequently transferred and earned a degree.

In addition, the community colleges usually don't have the big league sports or scientific research that can attract donations. And because of the intermittent enrollments of many students, it is not always clear who is an alumnus, and it can be difficult to locate alumni.

The Middleton family, which made its fortune in tobacco and owns part of the Philadelphia Phillies, will give $16.3 million over four years to the School District of Philadelphia and other educational institutions for training in workforce and professional development.

John Middleton and his wife, Leigh, will give the money to the School District and Drexel University, as well as to Philadelphia Youth Network and Philadelphia Academies Inc., both nonprofits focused on career development and training.