Jun 29, 2018, 12:56 PM
(from Nonprofit Quarterly) According to the Council for Aid to Education, a dozen high-dollar donors accounted for almost one-third of the dollars given to colleges in the last year. At the same time, the percentage of alumni who give has plummeted from 19 percent in 1990 to 7.4 percent last year. What is going on and is it healthy for an institution when its base of supporters grows ever smaller?
This pattern reflects the larger wealth gap in the economy and the increase in very-high-end gifts. The wealth divide in the larger economy appears to have also created a divide in institutions. Less than one percent of the nation’s colleges brought in around 30 percent of the $43.7 billion given to higher education. More moderately well-off alumni might not see the need to give in the context of individual donations in the hundreds of millions.
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