Penn ranked fourth-best fundraiser

Penn's pretty good at fundraising - relatively speaking.

The University raked in $409 million last year, enough to earn fourth place in a recent survey that ranked the top fundraisers in higher education.

But Penn's sum was no match for Stanford University's, which totalled $911 million in 2006.

Harvard and Yale universities trailed behind Stanford, raising $594 million and $433 million, respectively.

The New York-based Council for Aid to Education compiled these figures in a study released last week that includes fundraising data from universities nationwide.

Penn Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations John Zeller said 2006 was Penn's most successful fundraising year in history, with 2003 coming in second. He also said that, so far, donations this year are "on pace" with last year's.

Last year, Penn received about 125,000 financial gifts, ranging in size from $1 to millions.

"It's not just one or two gifts or programs that made the difference," he said, adding that many recent donations came from first-time donors, such as those inspired by Kentucky Derby-winner Barbaro, who was treated at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine.

The University is currently in the quiet stage of a capital campaign to be launched publicly this fall. Officials have not yet disclosed how much money they expect to raise, but do say that it will be in the multi-billion range.

Still, these efforts and successes have never been enough to put Penn completely ahead of other top-tier institutions.

Ann Kaplan, the director of the survey, said that most years, either Harvard or Stanford tops the list.

Kaplan pointed out that many donations are concentrated among the universities that are already the richest but, as a result, also need to support their many capital expenses.

As of Dec. 31, Penn's endowment was $5.9 billion. Conversely, Harvard's is $29 billion and Stanford's is $14 billion, both as of June 2006.

Stanford's strong performance, officials say, may be due to back-to-back capital campaigns.

Stanford both outperformed all of its peers this year and set a new record for the amount of money raised by a university in a single year.

Overall, higher education is $28 billion richer than it was last year, and donations are up 9.4 percent, according to the survey.

According to Kaplan, the single largest contribution any institution received last year was a $104 million gift to Tufts University.

As for why higher education is consistently such a popular form of philanthropy, Kaplan said "people get attached" to the institutions they attend, especially as undergraduates.

Because they have many divisions, from research to the arts, universities can potentially serve many interests, she noted.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.