Alumni Fund Donations Lead U.S.; Pass Yale Figure for First Time

Alumni gifts to the Harvard Fund surpassed the Yale Alumni Fund in 1954 for the first time since the two colleges began their fund drives. The American Alumni Council announced Monday.

The University received $1,233,448, the largest amount given to any American school. This figure exceeded Yale's 1954 donations by more than $200,000.

In total number of alumni contributors, the University kept its first place standing in the nation, having 30,402 donators. Yale ranked second with 24,422 contributions.

Dartmouth and Princeton, perennially engaged in a struggle for the leadership in the field of the highest percentage of alumni contributors, also changed positions in 1954. Princeton, with a percentage of 67.9, was 0.2 percent higher than Dartmouth, and took the national lead for the first time.

The American Alumni Council also reported that alumni contributions to universities, colleges, and secondary schools increased substantially in 1954. Three hundred fifty-two institutions received donations of $21,619,035 from 791,008 alumni. Over twice this sum was given in the form of gifts and bequests not credited to alumni funds.

The report, published in the 1954 Alumni Fund Survey, indicated that over one third of the total gifts went to a group of 62 private men's colleges. Another third was accounted for by 140 co-educational, institutions, the largest group to report their results.

Donations of the remaining amount went to women's colleges, state and land-grant universities, private secondary schools, ten Canadian universities, urban universities, and junior colleges.