Record giving to higher education is back, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Council for Aid to Education.
America’s colleges and universities took in $33.8-billion in charitable contributions during the 2013 fiscal year, nearly a 10-percent increase over 2012 and the biggest sum ever raised by the sector. The previous record for charitable gifts to colleges was $31.6-billion during the 2008 fiscal year, before the recession stifled donations.
“This year’s giving increased in large part due to the rebounding in the stock market,” said Ann E. Kaplan, director of the survey.
The positive news echoed January’s report that college endowments had returned an average of 11.7 percent in 2013, also based largely on the strong performance of the stock market. The four major stock indexes—Standard & Poor’s 500, the New York Stock Exchange Composite, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the Nasdaq Composite—increased by double-digit percentages between the first and last days of the academic fiscal year (from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013, with a handful of exceptions).
Full article text available via The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 02/12/14.
