Dollars raised during Duke's collection of charitable gifts during the 2006 fiscal year broke records, but the overall number of donors decreased.
The University collected $341.9 million, which surpassed the 2005 total by $66.1 million and broke the school's record of $302.6 million, set in 2000.
The total dollar amount came from 95,614 donors--including 41,000 alumni--marking a drop from the 2005 total of 100,031.
Although officials cannot pinpoint the exact cause of the drop in the number of donors, some said the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is the most likely explanation. Contributors may have shifted their donations to other causes, they explained.
"We have a lot of competition from other charitable organizations," said Robert Shepard, vice president for alumni affairs and development.
Click for related content: Duke nets record-high 3.42M in FY 2006 gifts
"Those important events in terms of national catastrophes often draw a lot of donors."
Shepard added that the University temporarily stopped soliciting donations from alumni in the Gulf Coast region during the second quarter of the fiscal year.
Peter Vaughn, executive director of alumni and developmental communications, said the University followed the same policy for alumni living in the New York and Washington D.C. areas after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and saw similar trends in donations.
Officials added that rape allegations against members of the men's lacrosse team, however, were unlikely to have caused the drop in donors.
The allegations emerged in March, and donations were highest during the fourth quarter, which lasted from April 1 to June 30.
Vaughn said the drop in donors is not a source of concern because the total numbers for both 2005 and 2006 were higher than 92,000, the annual average for the past five years.
"It may be that the year before was an anomaly," he said. "The final dollar total speaks for itself. Ideally, we'd like to have more donors and more funds, but we see no cause for concern here."
Both Vaughn and Shepard said the University managed to collect the record-setting dollar amount because members of the smaller pool of donors gave above-average amounts.
"We had an abnormally large number of large gifts," Vaughn said. "Fewer people gave more money."
Officials said several of the large gifts were likely in response to the December announcement of the Financial Aid Initiative, which aims to garner $300 million over three years.
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