Big schools rake it in

Posted at 11:52 AM on February 20, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Saw this item in the paper this morning:

Donations to colleges and universities rose solidly last year, to a record of nearly $30 billion, with the wealthiest universities again attracting a hugely disproportionate share, a new survey shows....The already wealthy schools — with leading faculty researchers and the most sophisticated fundraising operations — had the most success attracting new donations.

This version is from the AP. The item reminded me of our charity-themed episode back in October. Along the way, we asked people to think about where American donations went. In particular, we spent some time on how much went to arts and educational institutions (and how surprisingly little went to orgs that directly serve social needs).

There's no black and white here, no easy answers. A good chunk of my own household donations go to a college, so I can hardly throw stones. This article speculates that the economic downtown could shut down the boom-time for colleges. On the other hand, college giving appears to be less affected than other types.

What do you make of stats like this?

Here's a song to help with the thinking process :-)

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