Charitable giving to colleges and universities nationwide went down in 2002 for the first time in 15 years, but Boston University is 39 percent ahead of last year in fundraising, BU vice president for Development and Alumni Relations Christopher R. Reaske said last week.
Private contributions to the nation’s colleges and universities dropped by 1.2 percent last year, to $23.9 billion, according to a study released last week by the Council for Aid to Education. Though donations from foundations rose 5 percent over the previous year, alumni gifts dropped precipitously 13.6 percent according to the organization.
Meanwhile, contributions are up 39 percent at BU this year, from $51 million to $71 million, and Reaske said administrators are expecting to reach the $100 million mark this year. Though individual alumni pledges are down 9 percent this year, foundation contributions are up, mostly because of the John Hancock Corporation’s $20 million contribution to the Student Village Project last year, he said.
But while Reaske said BU is ‘running strongly ahead of last year,’ he was not surprised by the survey’s findings.
‘A lot of people are expressing lesser ability to make gifts generally,’ Reaske said.
Reaske said because college alumni bodies are spread out across the country and more local institutions have also been feeling the effects of the economy’s downturn, people who would in better times give to colleges and universities are feeling pressure to ‘give more in their own backyard.’ Many families are also feeling the effects of increased tuition costs at colleges and universities across the country, both public and private, and having their own financial troubles, leaving less money to give, Reaske said.
Reaske said he was surprised the decrease was so small, considering the economic circumstances.
Reaske attributed BU’s large increase in donations this year, and increases every year for the past eight years, to a better-run university alumni relations and fundraising infrastructure, established under him since he came to BU from Yale University in 1995.
‘We have a more intense and streamlined fundraising program at the university than we did 10 years ago,’ Reaske said.
But the increase in donations also has to do with numerous campus capital improvement projects, for which millions of dollars must be raised, Reaske said. A new Life Science and Engineering Building, new graduate student housing at 580 Commonwealth Ave., a new Computer Science building and three new large dormitories like the Student Residences at 10 Buick St. are among the projects planned for the next few years, and a new hockey arena and student center are already under construction as part of the Student Village Project.
‘To every extent possible, we’re trying to urge alumni and other groups to support those projects,’ Reaske said. ‘We need to build more buildings, and to do that we need more individual gifts.’
Reaske said university officials have already secured $50 million for the Student Village Project, which should eventually cost more than $200 million.
BU’s ‘increasingly powerful faculty’ has also drawn more and more support from foundations for their work, accounting for part of the increase, according to Reaske.
BU receives between 50 and 60 percent of donations from foundations, according to Reaske, more than twice the national average.
In the end, Reaske said he is happy BU is bucking national trends with donations during tough economic times nationally. He said he expects to see more increases over the next few years, assuming the economy recovers.
‘If we’re doing this well when the economy is struggling this much, we can do even better when the economy turns around,’ Reaske said. ‘If the economy stays sour, we might see a little backward movement, but I hope not we need the support too much.’
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