As the University brings in more private donations this fiscal year than last, officials are still cautiously hopeful and planning another University-wide fundraising campaign.
As of May 29, the Annual Fund and the University as a whole have received 10 percent increases in private donations from a year ago, said William Conescu, executive director of alumni and development communications. Reunion givings are up 18 percent so far this fiscal year, said Hank Woods, assistant vice president for the Annual Fund.
This year’s increase in donations marks a turnaround from the decline in private support in fiscal year 2008-2009, when private giving dropped to $301.6 million from the record-high $385.7 million received the previous year, Vice President for University Development Robert Shepard said. Reunion givings fell 15 percent in fiscal year 2008-2009 from the year before, and the University’s overall private donations weathered a 23 percent drop as of mid-April last year.
“It was difficult last year with the downturn and the fact that there were some major pledges and gifts the year before that wouldn’t be renewed,” Shepard said.
Although the Office of University Development, which organizes University-wide fundraising, has begun planning its next fundraising initiative, its launch date is yet to be determined.
“No formal decisions have been made, but we’re looking forward and obviously waiting, to some extent, for the recovery of the economy to launch the next fundraising initiative,” Shepard said.
Conescu declined to specify in what form the fundraising initiative might take shape. In the last two years, the University has organized a Phonathon, raising more than $400,000 each year.
The number of donors so far this fiscal year, approximately 90,000 corporations, foundations and individuals, is consistent with last year’s data, Conescu wrote in an e-mail.
Donors to the Annual Fund include alumni, parents, students, faculty staff and friends of the University, Woods wrote in an e-mail. Donations from Reunions Weekend go toward the Annual Fund, which comprised approximately 7 to 8 percent of the University’s total annual private givings over the last two fiscal years, according to the University’s development annual reports from the last two fiscal years.
Although the University does not have a public fundraising goal for this fiscal year ending June 30, its Annual Fund goal is to raise $26.3 million from 45,000 participants, according to the fund’s website. The Annual Fund has raised $21 million so far from just more than 39,000 donors. It raised $24 million last fiscal year and $26.1 million the year before.
“We certainly have done some projections and some planning and our hope and expectation was that donations would rise,” Shepard said.
With $5.3 million until the Annual Fund reaches its goal before the June 30 deadline, Conescu said previous patterns in giving show good chances of raising the remaining funds, as giving peaks at the end of the fiscal year.
“Knock on wood, we feel pretty good about the increases that we’ve seen,” Shepard said.
According to the Annual Fund website, 44 percent of this year’s Annual Fund goal can be attributed to reunion giving goals for alumni who celebrated reunions in 2010. For this fiscal year, the reunions giving goal is approximately $11.5 million.
University Development sets goals for classes preparing to attend reunions weekend based on a class’s initial size, age and income as well as its prior giving patterns and discussions with the class’ volunteer leaders, Woods said. The Class of 1980’s 30th reunion this year, for example, would be compared to the Class of 1979’s 30th reunion last year. Goals this year range from $200,000 for the Class of 2005 to $2.15 million for the Classes of 1980 and 1985.
Five of the 10 classes that celebrated reunions this year have already reached, and in some cases surpassed, reunion goals.
Looking ahead, Conescu expanded on Shepard’s observation that certain major gifts made in previous years will not be repeated this fiscal year. Conescu noted that several of these gifts were made specifically to the Financial Aid Initiative, which concluded in 2008. The initiative raised $308.5 million, according to the annual report.
Conescu also noted that cash donations from the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment, the University’s single largest donor, decreased from almost $78 million in fiscal year 2007-2008 to $40 million in fiscal year 2008-2009, a decrease likely attributable to the endowment’s fall in worth from a November 2007 peak of $3.3 billion. Conescu declined to reveal how much the Duke Endowment has granted the University this fiscal year.
Duke Endowment Chair Russell Robinson, Trinity ’54 and Law ’56, expects the losses to affect giving this fiscal year and likely into fiscal year 2011, The Chronicle reported in March.
Conescu declined to comment on the current private donation total to the University, or how diminished assets of the Charlotte-based Duke Endowment may affect donations. The Office of University Development will publish its 2009-2010 Development Annual Report by late summer or early Fall.
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