Dive Brief:
- Large donations to colleges are rebounding, with 16 gifts this year of at least $50 million, twice as many as during all of last year, numbers from the Chronicle of Higher Education show.
- Philanthropy in higher education is tied to the performance of the stock market; mega gifts plummeted in 2009 amid an economic slowdown.
- Harvard is starting a big fundraising push, aiming for $6.5 billion by 2018, the biggest money-raising campaign in higher education.
Dive Insight:
Big donors matter. Here's an eye-opening statistic from John Lippincott, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Washington: Just 1% of donors account for 87% of the money raised by universities and colleges in campaigns of $1 billion or more.
