No Surprise: Harvard Tops Nation in Donations

Harvard raked in more than $450 million in donations last year, about 32 percent more than any other American institution of higher learning, the University confirmed yesterday.

Still, according to a report released by the New York-based Council for Aid Education, Harvard made $11 million more in donations during 1998.

But the University is not concerned.

"This isn't a competition with other schools for fundraising," said Andrew K. Tiedemann, a spokesperson for the University Development Office. "We are very focused on the University's programs and trying to attracts gifts from alumni and friends...Where we fall in some rankings isn't something we really pay any attention to."

Tiedemann said the long-term trend for Harvard has been increased support. In 1992-93, Harvard received about $228 million, he said. The fact that the number has more that doubled since then is largely a result of the University's recently concluded six-year Capital Campaign, he added.

"It's interesting and important for the University to see where the numbers go in the next three to four years, when we are out of the campaign," Tiedemann said.

Cornell, which received about $340 million in 1999, placed second to Harvard, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

Duke, Stanford and Columbia universities rounded out the top five. Stanford tumbled from second to fourth; Princeton fell from eighth to 20th. Yale was nudged from seventh to eighth, with nearly $225 million.

Ceci Evangelista, special assistant to the vice president for development at Stanford, attributes the university's drop to a different technique of reporting gifts. Stanford does not keep records on the face value of its donations, but rather their future worth--in current market value, she said. The survey, however, calculated donations based on current face value.

"We don't even have that on our books," she said.

Evangelista also noted that a number of high-performing universities are involved in capital campaigns. According to the Chronicle, 12 of the top 20 universities were in capital campaigns when the data was collected.

The University of Nebraska was a newcomer to the top 10, boosted into the ninth spot by a capital campaign and a $130 million gift, according to the Chronicle.

Harvard did not always come out the winner in breakdowns of donation sources. Although during 1997-98, Harvard got the most money from alumni, during 1998-99 Cornell was number one.

"Eighty percent of our gifts come from alumni," Tiedemann said. "We've seen nothing but increases across the board. Our hope is that we can continue to rely on alumni."

Harvard also fell from first to fourth in terms of giving from non-alumni individuals. Polytechnic, Stanford and Cornell came in first, second and third.

Cornell's Director of University Development Laurie A. Robinson said that only Harvard's ranking seems to be consistent.

"It really depends on a lot of factors... Harvard's the one consistently at the top there," she said, adding that she has seen numbers two through five fluctuate from year to year.

"You can't isolate one particular factor."