Higher education sets another giving record, but alumni participation once again down

The results of the fiscal year 2015 Voluntary Support of Education survey (VSE) have been announced, and once again, higher education has received record support of $40.3 billion—the largest total since the survey started in 1957. However, alumni participation continues to drop. The highlights:

• Mega-gifts, and particularly those of more than $100 million, helped drive the increase. Whether you believe the estimates of “The Great Wealth Transfer” or not, there are certainly a large number of big gifts being given in the past few years.
• Alumni contributed a whopping $10.85 billion, and personal giving drove the increase. It’s important to note that these numbers might undershoot the impact because we’re seeing donors increase their use of donor-advised funds, which might be captured in the other categories but are definitely driven from an individual relationship.
• Endowment earnings moderated substantially from their 2014 postings. This is not surprising given the market trends we’re seeing.
• Alumni giving is up, but alumni participation is once again down. We’re able to stay in touch with more alumni, but we’re just not getting them to take action as donors at the same rate. Alumni of record rose by 3.4%, but alumni donors increased by just 0.7%.

Since we know that 70-80% of major givers have been annual fund contributors over the years, this is a worrying trend. Building a strong group of loyal, annually participating donors is a crucial part of any higher education advancement plan.

Find out more about this year’s results and how to submit to the VSE Survey at the Council for Aid to Education’s 2015 press release site.

And if you are interested in finding out how your results compare, and how you can increase donor and dollar counts along with building your pipeline for major gifts, contact us and tell us what you would like to discuss with our fundraising strategists.