Duke ranked ninth in the country in donations raised during the 2005-2006 academic year, according to the annual Voluntary Support of Education survey released last week by the Council for Aid to Education.
The University received a record-setting $341.9 million in charitable gifts between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006 from 95,614 donors, according to a press release. The CAE survey, however, reported Duke's donations at $332 million.
Officials said Duke's ranking saw an increase from the previous year.
"The fact that alumni giving set records last year speaks volumes," John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations said. "Alums love this place. They know what a difference it made in their lives, and they want to make that much of a difference for the current students."
Though the amount of charitable gifts increased, the number of donors decreased slightly, said Peter Vaughn, executive director of alumni and development communications.
"Total number of donors is [typically] around 100,000 so we're talking about small numbers of change within that bigger figure," he said.
Vaughn added that it was hard to speculate what caused the increase in donations, but said the Financial Aid Initiative launched last year may have had an effect.
"It goes up and down every year, there's a fairly wide range," he said, adding that the lacrosse case did not have an adverse effect on giving, as "conventional wisdom" may have predicted.
The University is aiming to receive a total of $354 million this academic year, administrators said.
"We're slightly ahead of last year's number right now, but it's hard to tell because a good deal of giving takes place in the last six months of the year," Vaughn said.
He noted that the DukeEngage service learning initiative already brought in $30 million at its launch earlier this month.
"The opinion is that it's such a good idea and favored by so many people out there, that it's likely to bring in more donations," Vaughn said.
According to the CAE report, there is a national trend for increasing donations and a decreasing number of donors. Nationwide alumni participation fell to 11.8 percent in 2006 from 12.4 percent in 2005, the report stated.
"There has been some concern that alumni participation is declining, but in spite of that trend, which is real, alumni continue to be a driving force in the charitable support of higher education institutions," Anne Kaplan, director of the survey, said in a statement.
The report noted that alumni giving continues to increase because those contributing are giving more than before.
Donations are used in a variety of areas at Duke, including financial aid, faculty support, endowment and general campus upkeep, Vaughn said.
Duke's previous record was set in the 1999-2000 academic year with a total of $302.6 million, he noted.
"Duke continues to raise money year in and year out," he said. "We will no matter what the conditions are."
According to the report, national charitable contributions reached a total of $28 billion in 2006, an increase of 9.4 percent. A little more than half of total giving came from individuals, 30 percent of which were alumni-an increase of 18.3 percent.
Stanford University was ranked first in the survey with a total of $911.2 million raised in the previous academic year, setting the record for an amount collected by a single university.
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