In Sunnier Outlook for Giving, Fund Raisers Predict Growth in 2010

Optimism is returning to the campus fund-raising office.

College fund raisers estimate that private giving to higher education will grow by 3.7 percent in 2010, according to the results of an online survey of senior-level fund-raising executives conducted by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The prediction for 2010 is an improvement over respondents’ appraisal of the previous year’s results. Fund raisers estimated that private giving declined slightly — by 0.8 percent — from 2008 to 2009.

The survey’s findings were contradicted in part by a report, also released on Tuesday, by Moody’s Investors Service, in which the credit-rating agency said the financial outlook for higher education in 2010 remained negative for a second consecutive year.

Final results for private giving in 2009 are not yet available. The Council for Aid to Education publishes the results of an annual “Voluntary Support of Education” survey, with data on the previous fiscal year, in February.

John Lippincott, president of CASE, said the results of the CASE Fundraising Index indicate that many colleges began to see a recovery in fund raising in the second half of last year, after a difficult start. Mr. Lippincott and fund-raising consultants expect more colleges will announce major campaigns in 2010 than did in 2009.

The results of the Fundraising Index, especially the 2009 estimates, varied widely by institution, Mr. Lippincott said. Colleges with mature fund-raising programs probably saw less volatility than institutions that were just getting their development programs off the ground when the recession hit, he said.

The Fundraising Index is based on a survey of more than 2,200 of CASE’s member institutions from January 5 to 13, and had a response rate of 7.4 percent, similar to the response rates to previous surveys.