Donors gave less to NYU in 2009

As people adjusted their budgets last year to account for troublesome economic times, alumni closed their wallets to universities across the country — including those alumni who call NYU their alma mater.

According to a survey recently released by the Council for Aid to Education, charitable contributions to universities in the U.S. fell 11.9 percent from 2008 to 2009. It was the sharpest decline in the survey's 40-year history.

"2009 was a difficult year for colleges and universities and, indeed, also for the individuals and institutions that care about them," survey director Ann E. Kaplan said in a statement.

NYU was not immune to that difficulty. Its fundraising totals dropped from $387.61 million in 2008 to $334.79 million in 2009 — a 13.6 percent fall.

"Last year we saw a decrease in number of donors and number of dollars," NYU senior vice president for development and alumni affairs Debra LaMorte said.

However, CAE does not take long-term pledges into account in its survey; it looks only at the dollar amount received during that calendar year. LaMorte prefers taking the perspective of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, which counts those pledges during the year they are made.

"So if Mrs. Kimmel makes a $150 million pledge to the university, which she has done, I can record that in my total fundraising numbers for CASE, but I can't do it for CAE," she said.

The CASE standard, calculated based on academic year, shows a much larger drop in fundraising between last year and the year before, from over $860 million in 2007-08 to about $376 million last year.

According to LaMorte, the large decline can be attributed to an exceptionally good year of fundraising in 2007-08 followed by a "lack of momentum" after the seven-year Campaign for NYU ended.

She also acknowledged that tough economic times played a part in holding back fundraising.

"I'll give you an example: Stern. Most of their alumni are on Wall Street or in investment firms," LaMorte said. "Last year, the Stern annual fund did not do as well because those people got really hit hard."

But as the economy picks up, NYU's fundraising has started to accelerate. The university has raised more than $130 million so far in the 2009-10 academic year. It had only raised about $108 million at the same point last year.

NYU has set a goal to raise $400.3 million throughout the entire academic year. But if the university maintains the fundraising rate it has averaged since the beginning of the year — about $800,000 a day — it will fall short of its goal by over $100 million.

However, as Mrs. Kimmel's $150 million contribution showed, one major donation would be enough to set NYU over the edge.

Other schools are expecting to see their fundraising numbers increase again after a drop last year.

"We're hearing more confident and positive things from our donors," said Daniel Baker, executive director of university donor relations and stewardship at Columbia University, where fundraising fell 16.7 percent last year according to the CAE survey.

"As we're hearing about glimmers of recovering in the economy, we're starting to see those glimmers reflected [in fundraising]," Baker added.

But not all schools have to worry about recovering from a fall. Cornell University actually saw a 9.1 percent increase in fundraising in 2009, raising $446.75 million, according to the survey.

"We have had unbelievable success with the annual fund," said Charles Phlegar, vice president for alumni affairs and development at Cornell University.

Both Cornell and Columbia are in the middle of seven-year capital campaigns to raise $4 billion.

NYU's own campaign may have ended, LaMorte said, but that doesn't stop her from pushing for as many contributions as she can every day.

"I get up and my mission is, how much money can I raise today?" she said. "Campaign or no campaign, I'm like a surfer after the perfect wave."

"It's all about making the goal," she added. "I've got to raise $400 million this year."