As American colleges cope with drops in private-giving totals and smaller average gifts, a growing number are looking to other countries to find donors, a survey of international fund raising by The Chronicle of Higher Education found.
The survey of a nonrandom sample of 51 institutions from 11 countries provides a snapshot of how colleges are tapping alumni and other donors in countries outside their own for support. Colleges that responded to the survey reported that an average of 5.5 percent of their total fund-raising revenue came from international sources last year.
The money raised is not insubstantial: The median amount raised from international sources in the past year among those surveyed was $1.25-million. The median number of international gifts was 133.
A number of institutions have for years seen the value of engaging their international alumni and seeking private support outside their home countries, with more than half of the survey respondents reporting that they first actively pursued international fund raising before 2000. Twenty-two percent started between 2000 and 2005, and another 22 percent started an international effort between 2007 and 2009.
International fund raising has numerous advantages but also comes with challenges, fund raisers said. On the positive side, an international effort expands a college’s pool of potential donors; helps keep the college in touch with alumni in other countries who may also be able to help in other ways, including admissions; and helps stimulate interest among international students. It also helps diversify a college’s fund-raising sources—a benefit at a time when sectors of the American economy are suffering.
“Quite simply put, if an institution has an international constituency, it can’t afford not to attempt to engage them,” one respondent wrote.
The Cost of Collecting
However, raising money internationally isn’t simple. The main challenges that colleges reported were travel costs, tax laws in other countries that do not encourage charitable giving, and the difficulty of doing the direct face-to-face communication necessary for major-gift cultivation. Fund raisers also say some countries either lack a culture of philanthropy or have philanthropic cultures different from that of the United States, and in such countries, fund raisers must take the time to educate potential donors about why they should give to higher education. Other survey respondents said they were limited in how much they could invest in an international fund-raising program.
The survey is believed to be the first regarding higher-education fund raising to ask specifically about money raised by colleges that comes from donors outside an institution’s home country.
Among universities that responded to the survey, the institutions that raised the most money from international sources in the last year were the University of Oxford, which raised $77.2-million from international sources; the University of Cambridge, which raised $19.3-million; the University of Aberdeen, which raised $17.8-million; the University of California at Berkeley, which raised $16.4-million; and Cornell University, which raised $16.3-million.
Other universities in the top 10 include American University of Beirut, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Dublin Trinity College, Case Western Reserve University, and the University of Michigan.
American colleges that reported the highest number of gifts from international sources included Berkeley (2,200); the University of Texas at Austin (860); the University of Michigan (751); Cornell (702); the University at Buffalo (538); Williams College (459); and Carnegie Mellon (431).
The survey of institutions identified as major fund raisers was conducted from November 2009 to January 2010.
