Giving to American colleges and universities grew 6.1 percent during the 2018-19 fiscal year, to $49.6 billion, the 10th straight year of increases, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
Gifts from foundations grew 21.3 percent, to $17 billion. Much of that increase was driven by a $1.2-billion gift from Michael Bloomberg through his foundation to the Johns Hopkins University, part of a $1.8-billion commitment he made to the institution.
Gifts from alumni declined over all 7.9 percent, to $11.2 billion.
The annual “Voluntary Support of Education” report, released by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), is based on results from 914 institutions. Representing roughly one-third of all colleges and universities in the United States, they receive 88.3 percent of all private support to higher education, according to the report. CASE extrapolates from the results of the survey to arrive at national estimates.
Among other results in the report:
- Corporate support grew 1 percent, to $6.8 billion.
- Gifts for current operations rose 4 percent, to $28.5 billion.
- Gifts for capital purposes grew 9.2 percent, to $21.1 billion.
- Giving to public baccalaureate institutions grew 29.5 percent, more than any other group. However, donations to those colleges accounted for only 0.5 percent of the total, according to information from institutions that provided at least two years of data.
Tax-Law Changes
The report suggests that many individuals may have loaded up on contributions in 2017 as a result of the federal tax cut, as donors sought to secure deductions under the assumption that they wouldn’t be itemizing their taxes the following year. The tax law roughly doubled the standard deduction for most taxpayers.
That strategy, in which donors make a big gift one year and skip the next year or two to maximize their tax benefits, is often called “bundling.”
“For some households, 2019 is the first year they did not make contributions, planning to resume with another bundled gift at some future date,” the report states.
The report also speculates that the tax cut affected gifts through donor-advised funds. Such gifts grew 65.8 percent in 2018 but declined 17.4 percent in 2019.
The report says colleges and universities did exceptionally well compared with other types of nonprofit organizations. Overall giving in the United States grew only 0.7 percent in 2018, a decline of 1.7 percent after adjusting for inflation, according to Giving USA.
