Donations to higher education dropped 2.5% in the fiscal year ended last June amid a sharp decline in individual giving, according to a report from The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
CASE released its annual Insights on Voluntary Support of Education report earlier this month. The report covers the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023, which aligns with the typical fiscal year of higher education institutions. The decline tracked by CASE comes on the heels of a report from Giving USA released last August that showed an overall decrease in charitable giving in 2022.
CASE said individual giving dropped 10.9% from a year earlier. Contributions from organizations, on the other hand, increased 2.7%.
CASE also noted that the increase in contributions to higher education institutions in 2022 was a historically high 12.5%, so a regression toward long-term growth trends was expected. Additionally, gifts for current operations increased by 2.2%. Gifts for capital purposes fell 8.9%.
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) and large gifts were the major drivers of donations to higher education, according to the CASE report, in line with trends across the philanthropic spectrum.
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Overall, the top-line decrease in higher education giving should not create material concern for fundraising in this space. The long-term growth trend remains strong. More importantly, higher education institutions should focus on the trends below the top line, noting growth in giving from other types of organizations including DAFs, which was up 4.4%., and corporations, which rose by 3.2%.
These are likely to continue driving growth in higher education donations for the next several years.
