Stanford Report, February 25, 2009

Stanford named top fundraiser

For the fourth year in a row, Stanford was named the top fundraiser by a national nonprofit organization that tracks charitable giving to U.S. colleges and universities.

In the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2008, Stanford raised $785 million from private donors, according to the Voluntary Support of Education Survey, an annual report produced by the New York-based Council for Aid to Education. Harvard took second place with $650.6 million.

Stanford took the top spot in 2007 with $832.3 million from private donors, in 2006 with $911 million and in 2005 with $603.6 million. Harvard placed second in 2007 and 2006, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison placed second in 2005.

In the 2008 survey, which ranks the top 20 fundraising schools, Columbia University came in third, with $495 million; Yale took fourth place, with $486.6 million; and the University of Pennsylvania came in fifth, with $476 million. The University of California-Berkeley, which raised $285.3 million in 2008, placed 20th.

The council said charitable contributions to U.S. colleges and universities grew by 6.2 percent in 2008, reaching $31.6 billion, the highest total ever reported.