Giving had reached an all-time high of $59.5 billion in the prior 12-month period. Although the 2023 total marked the second-highest for any 12-month period ever, the decline fits into ebbing levels of philanthropy seen recently.
Giving USA, which tracks donations of all kinds, unlike the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, lumps giving to higher education, preschools, K-12 education and libraries into its education category, so it has consistently detected a higher amount of educational giving than CASE.
Among other differences, the Giving USA data covers calendar years, while the CASE survey runs from July 1 of one year through June 30 of the next. In 2022, Giving USA found that Americans made $70 billion in education-related donations.
2. More mega gifts
Donors provide more donations of $100 million or more related to education than any other cause, including religion, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of America’s biggest donors.
The CASE survey found that colleges and universities received 11 of these gifts in the 2023 academic year, four more than a year earlier. The total money given this way doubled from 2022 to $2.24 billion.
The share of higher ed giving from the biggest donors more than doubled to 3.9% from 1.8% a year earlier. CASE doesn’t name the sources of mega gifts or the schools that received them, but I believe the list may include a historic $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation donated to Stony Brook University.
Donors rarely make gifts that big. This one also stands out because it’s the largest donation ever to be completely unrestricted. Stony Brook, a New York state public university located on Long Island, may spend or invest the money for whatever purposes it believes make the most sense.
Most gifts of $100 million or more, in contrast, are designated for specific purposes, such as funding student financial aid, expanding academic programs, constructing or renovating buildings or growing research initiatives.
What’s more common in this case are the close ties between the donor and the school receiving the gift. The foundation was formed by Jim Simons, a former Stony Brook math professor, and his wife, Marilyn Simons, who earned a bachelor’s degree and doctorate there. Jim Simons later made a fortune as a hedge fund manager.
To be sure, not all donors to higher education make massive gifts. Roughly 43% of the donations are under $100, according to the CASE survey. But those gifts totaled less than 1% of the dollars overall.
Giving had reached an all-time high of $59.5 billion in the prior 12-month period. Although the 2023 total marked the second-highest for any 12-month period ever, the decline fits into ebbing levels of philanthropy seen recently.
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