By Michael GsovskiThe Daily Northwestern
Northwestern received $253.4 million in donations in 2006, the 15th-largest amount of donations in the country, according to a report released last week by the Council for Aid to Education.
This is the largest amount of donations ever raised by NU and a 58-percent increase from 2005, when $160 million was raised.
The sum is the largest raised by an Illinois university this year. NU came in third in the Big Ten, behind the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which raised nearly $326 million, and the University of Minnesota, which raised almost $267 million. Nationwide, Stanford took the top spot, raising more than $911 million.
Sarah Pearson, vice president for alumni relations and development, said the increase in donations is part of a larger trend. Higher education across the nation saw a 14.8-percent increase in donations in 2005, she said.
“It was a very lively period philanthropically,” Pearson said. “There was a strong stock market and a strong economy and when that happens, you see people more willing to think about their assets and how they might take care of the institutions they have great passions for.”
NU solicited alumni donations more than in the past, which also played a role in the increase, Pearson said. Alumni and other private individuals contributed $177.5 million, or 70 percent, of NU’s total donations.
“We’ve refocused the staff so that there are more of them actually seeing as many alumni and friends (of Northwestern) as possible,” Pearson said. “They still have tremendous pride, so if we help them reconnect and experience Northwestern in their own region, they’re very grateful.”
Northwestern Alumni Association Treasurer Scot Marcotte, McCormick ’90, agreed that alumni pride has become stronger.
“There’s been a great deal of pride in the university over the past year,” Marcotte said. “We’re seeing a lot of our alumni in high positions within companies and entertainment. There’s great excitement, and its translating into tremendous pride.”
Pearson said she thinks the 2006 surge partly is due to the effects of Campaign Northwestern, a campuswide fundraising effort that officially began in 1998 and continued until 2003. The large amount of money donated over the course of the campaign – $1.55 billion – might have led many university donors to stop giving money for a period afterwards. Also, some commitments to donate made during the campaign just recently have begun to be fulfilled, she said.
“It’s not unusual to see a little bit of donor fatigue,” Pearson said. “Oftentimes in the year or two following a campaign, they like to take a bit of a breather and give to other institutions where they haven’t made a stretch gift.”
Both Marcotte and Pearson said they are hopeful for the future. The Center for Alumni Relations and Development is holding alumni gatherings in cities such as San Francisco and Boston and has established a new regional office in New York City to provide a resource for NU graduates.
“There are a lot of us all over the place,” Marcotte said. “We’re now in a position where we can get the word out on the local scene.”
Reach Michael Gsovski at [email protected].
