NIC Blog
Private Giving to Colleges Continues to Drop How Is Your Fraternity Foundation Doing?
Tags: foundation, giving, economy
Posted by Robert L. Burns
Well, since your foundation competes with the established college foundations in asking members of the same pool of donors for its support, it is likely that the falling trend is one that you also have experienced also. In fact, the colleges have a larger loyal donor base than any fraternity's as they can approach all former students, not just particular Greek members. And the most successful fundraisers among the campuses have more staff and resources to do this work than any fraternity is likely to have and in most cases those development professionals have more years of experience. So, as the academic world gears up to deal with the drop in level of giving, you must consider how you can follow suit in order to maintain your competitive edge.
Understanding what is happening with our host institutions provides you with a better base from which to compete with them.
Even the most successful fundraising colleges felt the drop, but perhaps the private liberal arts campuses were hardest hit in 2009. Types of giving did vary, with college success in annual fund campaigns remaining relatively stable, but capital gifts were down about 25 percent.
Perhaps one specific example is helpful. The survey report is that Valparaiso University raised $12.8M, which sounds great unless you know that in previous years of the just completed campaign they raised from $17M to $30M per year. Their success rate in 2009 was the worst in two decades. Valparaiso reports a participation rate of 18 percent (which is above average), but that is well below the 30% alumni participation level they had hoped for in the most recent campaign.
A report on Voluntary Support of Education survey issued in February indicates that private giving to colleges was down 11.9 percent in 2009, and this is the worst record in the last 50 years. The world economy's woes are one base of the problem, of course. How does this impact your fraternity's foundation?
So, what are the host institutions your foundation competes with planning to do about this set of issues? Again, look at one specific example. Tulane's president believes that the drop in giving will continue, perhaps even be permanent as to numbers and sizes of gifts. Tulane's income from gifts dropped one third in 2009. The planned response is to add $2M per year for the next three years to hire more fund-raising staff.
A summary of the survey's results can be found in a February 3 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The full report can be ordered through the Council of Aid to Education's website at http://www.cae.org.
