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gave more than $5,000 in fiscal 2022, but these gifts made up 95% of the total philanthropic dollars received by higher ed.Charitable giving to colleges and universities totaled a record $59.5 billion in fiscal year 2022—representing a 12.5% increase, the largest bump in higher ed philanthropy in more than two decades, according to new data from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. It’s also the most, in dollar terms, that’s ever been given, even after adjusting for inflation.
Colleges generally report on a fiscal year ending June 30th. That means they can thank a strong stock market in December 2021, when many wealthy donors look to make tax deductible gifts of appreciated stock, for a rise in 2022 donations, said Ann Kaplan, senior director of CASE’s Voluntary Support for Education survey. “A lot of gifts that were going to be made anyway were worth more because the stock market happened to be higher,” Kaplan observed.
The bump in donor dollars benefitted nearly every type of institution. Public baccalaureate institutions, private specialized colleges and public research universities all saw giving jump by more than 14% in fiscal 2022, according to the survey. Two-year colleges and public masters institutions were the only two sectors where overall giving declined year-over-year, though the drop is misleading.
The 20 institutions—nine public and 11 private—that raised the most money in fiscal 2022 accounted for about a quarter of all giving to colleges and universities. CASE counted seven paid gifts worth $100 million or more to the 781 colleges in its sample, though more than seven institutions