Dive Brief:
- Gifts to U.S. colleges rose to an estimated $78.8 billion in fiscal 2025, a 4% year-over-year increase, according to the latest annual study from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.
- Although the increase was “just enough to keep up with inflation,” the growth reflects “continued trust that donors place in educational institutions,” CASE said in its report.
- Growth was uneven across regions, donor types and other factors. For instance, alumni donors shrank in number even though their total giving increased 10.9%, indicating that a fewer number of donors gave higher-dollar gifts.
Dive Insight:
The higher education sector has faced chaos in federal research funding, as well as declining net tuition prices and the first per-student drop in state funding in over a decade. In that context, donor support is an area of relative stability.
“Donors remained resoundingly supportive of higher education, even as institutions navigated economic uncertainty and a complex social climate,” CASE said in the report, which was released on Thursday.
Funds received increased at 59.7% of colleges. Meanwhile, committed funds — which represent future cash flows for colleges — rose for nearly the same share of institutions, 57.4%, CASE said.
Committed funds varied by geography. For example, they dropped by 12% at private colleges in CASE’s West district, 4% in its Pacific Northwest district and 8% in the Mid-America district while rising throughout the rest of the U.S.
At public institutions, committed funds rose everywhere but in the Pacific Northwest, where growth was flat.
A majority of funds received, 59.5%, went toward supporting current operations, though most of that money came with restrictions. As a percentage of total gifts, those supporting current operations rose by 2.3 percentage points over the prior year. Meanwhile, the share of donor support for physical capital and restricted endowment income fell slightly to 10.3% and 27.8% respectively.
According to CASE, that shift was driven by lower restricted gift giving to private institutions’ endowments and suggested “donors’ preference for immediate impact over long-term investment.”
Funds received from individuals increased by 12% to $17.5 billion in 2025, while gifts from corporations jumped 9.3% to $5.4 billion, according to data from colleges that submitted data from the past two years to CASE. But foundation funds dropped by 5.1%to $13 billion at those colleges.
Among alumni donors, fewer offered smaller-dollar donations to colleges compared to 2024, with gifts over $1,000 driving an increase in the median per alumni donor to $1,895.
“As a result, institutions are increasingly relying on a narrower, higher-capacity donor base to sustain their philanthropic revenues,” CASE said. The organization also said that colleges appear to be cultivating longer-term relationships with alumni donors that might be supporting larger donations over time.
The CASE study was based on survey data from 670 public and private U.S. higher institutions, representing 18% of all colleges and universities.
