Duke falls behind many of its peers in fundraising

Duke reaped a whopping $581.05 million in charitable contributions in 2017, yet that was only 10th place among all American universities.

Donations to colleges and universities in the United States reached a record $43.6 billion in 2017, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education, a nonprofit organization which tracks philanthropic contributions to colleges. The survey found that foundations were the largest source of support, making up 30.1 percent of the 2017 total, and alumni were the second-largest source at 26.1 percent of contributions made in 2017. Higher personal giving drove the overall 6.3 percent increase in donations, which CAE attributed to the stronger stock market.

“Charitable support for colleges and universities is likely to increase in 2018 if the stock market continues to gain ground through June 30, 2018—the end of the fiscal year,” said Ann Kaplan, vice president of CAE and the survey’s director, in their press release. “In addition, some individuals may have pre-paid intentions and pledges in December of 2017 to take advantage of elements of the tax law that were more favorable for certain donors and types of gifts.”

Despite the major increases in contributions in 2017, the new tax plan may diminish future contributions due to the increase in the standard deduction, which reduces the tax incentive for charitable giving, according to the press release.

“You don’t know who’s going to fall into what category. The details are so complicated, there’s no way to know how that stratification is going to affect any institution. It’s not clear how changes in the law will affect giving,” Kaplan said in interview with Bloomberg Markets.

However, the top 20 institutions in the report—including Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, Yale University and Duke—may not have much to worry about. Although they compose less than one percent of the nation’s colleges, these 20 schools collectively raised almost 30 percent of the total contributions to colleges in 2017.