MIT Ranks 11th in Alumni Donations

In 2012, MIT raised $34,795 per student. This puts MIT as the 11th highest fundraiser when compared to other reporting U.S. colleges and universities, according to a press release last week from the Council for Aid to Education (CAE). Stanford University, which received the most total contributions with $1.03 billion in fundraising, ranked fifth with $55,745 per student. Yale University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and Harvard University ranked 7th, 8th, 17th, and 18th, respectively.

While fundraising by U.S. institutions increased by 2.3 percent—only slightly ahead of inflation—that increase was driven by donations from foundations (up 5.5 percent), corporations (up 4.6 percent), and non-alumni individuals (up 3.1 percent). 47.2 percent of institutions reporting to the CAE indicated a decline in total fundraising over the past year. Overall alumni giving declined 1.3 percent, and the average alumni gift decreased by 1.4 percent, and alumni participation also dropped from 9.5 percent in 2011 to 9.2 percent in 2012.

MIT, too, followed this trend in declining alumni giving.

According to numbers provided by Steve McAlister, director of the MIT Annual Fund, capped donations (which do not count contributions past $100,000) from MIT’s undergraduate and graduate alumni decreased 7.6 percent from $40.3 million in 2011 to $37.2 million in 2012. The percentage of undergraduate alumni participation also decreased from 36 to 35 percent, while graduate alumni giving remained essentially the same.

However, the total MIT Annual Fund donations in 2012 sum to $50.3 million—an 8 percent increase from the previous year.

Read the full article in The Tech.