noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646
DURHAM -- After a year of struggle, fundraising at Duke University is beginning to pick up.
"We are cautiously optimistic that this year will be a better year than the last one," said Mike Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs. "For the first six months of the year, we are ahead in dollars and about even in the number of donors from last year, and that is very encouraging news."
Schoenfeld said the university is up about 5 percent in money raised over the same time last year as of Dec. 31.
Like almost all universities and other institutions that solicit donations, Duke saw a decrease in philanthropy during the 2008-09 year because of the slowing economy. After raising more than $385 million the year before, Duke brought in $301 million last year, a fall off of nearly 22 percent.
"We were among many institutions that suffered decreases," said Schoenfeld, who declined to disclose specific numbers concerning Duke's current fundraising. "Any time you have such disruptions in the markets and in people's concern about jobs and wealth, you're naturally going to see changes in philanthropy."
A positive sign for Duke last year, though, was that it retained about the same number of donors -- more than 100,000. They just gave less overall.
"The timing and size of major gifts can have significant impact in your fundraising, and last year was more difficult especially for major gifts," said Schoenfeld. "We are hopeful that this year we will see things come to fruition that weren't able to last year. We are optimistic that individuals who may have been reluctant to commit to major gifts will be able to do so now."
Despite last year's decline in giving, Duke nevertheless still ranked among the top fundraising institutions in the nation, coming in 13th in the most recent ranking. And last year's decline came on the heels of overall growth at the school of nearly 30 percent in fundraising for the past decade.
The good news for Duke and other colleges and universities is that over the past six months, the markets have rebounded strongly, and donations should be rising.
According to a national survey by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, fundraising for U.S. colleges, universities schools, colleges and universities should increase by 3.7 percent during 2010.
"The predicted growth is indeed a welcome sign," said John Lippincott, the president of CASE, which is the professional organization for professionals working in educational fundraising. "And while the rate of growth is below the average for the last two decades, it nontheless offers reason for optimism and reassurance."
The 20-year average growth rate for college and university fundraising is 7.1 percent, said Rae Goldsmith, CASE's vice president for advancement resources. "What our survey predicts now is well under that and so a fairly marginal increase, but when you consider that we're coming out of a hole, at least it's a step in the right direction."
CASE estimated that the hole wasn't as deep as it initially seemed. The organization, which asked fundraisers to estimate their year-end results and predict their year-ahead performance, found that overall fundraising declined last year by less than 1 percent.
While the survey does predict modest growth in fundraising, its results were contradicted at least in part by a report from Moody's Investors Service this week. The credit-rating agency said that for the second consecutive year, the financial outlook for higher education in 2010 was negative.
