Donations made to universities in the UK passed £1bn in a year for the first time, according to figures from an annual survey.
According to figures from the annual Ross-Case survey on higher education giving in the UK, donations made to UK universities in 2015/16 surpassed £1bn for the first time – an increase of 23 per cent from 2014-15.
The report, compiled by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (Case) showed that of the £1.06bn figure donated to universities in 2015/16, 55 per cent of the income came from organisations including companies and trusts and foundations and 45 per cent from individuals.
The figures from the report were tallied from 110 participating universities across the UK.
The report also showed that the number of individual donors who gave gifts/pledges of more than £500,000 was 240 in 2015/16, a 27 per cent increase on the year before.
A 10 per cent increase in cash donations
Total cash income received by universities in 2015/16 rose by 10 per cent to £838.7m, with individuals contributing around 51 per cent of total cash donations. Total cash income from legacies was £104.7m in 2015/16 from 1,179 legacy donors.
According to the research, 177,798 alumni donors accounted for around 80 per cent of the total number of donations made to a UK university by individual donors in 2015/16. The 110 universities which participated in the survey reported that, between them, they represented 10.7 million contactable alumni.
The figures show that on average 1.2 per cent of contactable alumni made some form of cash or other donation to a university.
For the purposes of the report, universities across the UK are broken down into five categories or ‘clusters’: fragile; emerging; moderate; established and elite. The report showed that ‘established’ institutions accounted for 32 per cent of the total new funds secured in 2015/16 and 33 per cent of total donors. ‘Elite’ universities accounted for 46 per cent of new funds and 34 per cent of total donors.
Total investment in fundraising activities more than doubled
Participating universities in the survey reportedly more than doubled investment in fundraising activities, spending £109.3m in 2015/16. By comparison, universities spent £43.4m on so-called ‘alumni relations’.
The mean spend on fundraising across the universities was just over £1m which employed an average of 13 fundraising staff. Staff costs accounted for 68 per cent of total fundraising costs and 65 per cent of alumni relations costs.
In Fundraising Magazine
According to the report, this “highlighted the continued investment in development and advancement operations across the UK higher education sector”.
Commenting on the findings, TJ Rawlinson, director of development and alumni relation at Cardiff University, said: “Today's announcement that philanthropic commitments to higher education have this year surpassed one billion pounds is a real landmark.
"This growth from a few million pounds is testament to the hard work of over 2,100 fundraising and alumni relations professionals, and the academic colleagues they strive to support, in inspiring donors to invest in education and research – thereby transforming lives and society.”
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