Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Charitable Donations Peak

SHANNON HOU/THE HOYA
SHANNON HOU/THE HOYA

Last year marked the highest charitable donations total given to Georgetown University, mirroring a national trend of increased alumni giving to alma maters.

In the 2014 fiscal year, which ran from July 2013 to June 2014, Georgetown raised $236 million in donations, $40 million more than the previous record total of $189 million in fiscal year 2013. The period was highlighted by the $100 million donation by Frank McCourt Jr. (CAS ’75) to create the McCourt School of Public Policy in September 2013. The donation was the largest received by Georgetown.

“We believe that this marks a transition point, and helps to send a signal that Georgetown is continuing to progress and is maturing into an organization that fundraises and receives support from donors that is consistent with both our peer group and our aspirational peer group,” Vice President for Advancement R. Bartley Moore (SFS ’87) said.

Ongoing fundraising for fiscal year 2015, which began in July 2014, has solicited $72.78 million as of the end of December.

The Georgetown increase reflects a nationwide increase in charitable giving to colleges and universities, which reached a record high in 2014 for the second year in a row, according to a Jan. 28 report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Giving across the United States totaled $37.45 billion in 2014, a 10.8 percent increase from 2013 and the highest amount that has been recorded since the survey started in 1957. The Chronicle attributed the increase to an explosion of wealth, rather than an increase in income.

According to Senior Director of Campaign Management and Donor Relations Stephanie Jacobson-Landon, trends in charitable giving strongly correlate with the state of the economy and the stock market — the increases have occurred since the end of the recession.

“It really does map closely to the overall U.S. economy and peoples’ general feeling of comfort that economic trends are going in a positive direction,” Jacobson-Landon said. “Charitable giving has been growing since the economic downturn, and by and large our giving totals have been going up as well as our overall participation rates.”

An increase in the donor populace has accompanied the total increase in charitable giving. Moore said that because of expanded outreach, the university has set a record number of donors every year for the past eight years, a particularly important factor since participation rate is built into the annual U.S. News and World Report rankings.

Additionally, giving by undergraduates during their time at college, which previously tended to rest around 23 to 24 percent, was 33 percent last year. The highest mark came in 2003, when 34 percent of current undergraduates donated.

The increase in giving corresponds with Georgetown’s landmark capital campaign, titled “For Generations to Come: The Campaign for Georgetown.” The campaign, which began in FY 2007 and will continue through FY 2017, aims to raise $1.5 billion, of which it has currently solicited $1.38 billion.

The largest capital project of the campaign is the construction of the $60 million John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center. This past year saw three large donations by former men’s basketball players to the center: a $3.3 million gift from Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), veteran sports agent and Syracuse University alum David Falk and his wife Rhonda on Aug. 21, a $1 million donation by Jeff Green (COL ’12) on Aug. 28 and a $1 million gift from Roy Hibbert (COL ’08) on Sept. 2.

Moore noted that there has been a steady increase in number of large gifts over the past few years, noting the McCourt donation and the $75 million gift from Robert McDevitt (C ’40) to endow faculty chairs in December 2008 as prime examples. In addition to the Ewing, Green and Hibbert donations in FY 2015, the university received $10 million from Patricia and Jon Baker Sr. (CAS ’64) in October to establish the Baker Center for Leadership and Governance within the McCourt School of Public Policy to promote policy research and discussion.

“Gifts of $10 million or more used to be quite rare, but now they are much more frequent occurrences for us,” Moore said.

Moore added that all gifts are allocated based on the donor’s wishes.

“We do exactly what the donor instructs us to do with the money that they give,” Moore said. “Where we exercise any discretion is when the donor gives a contribution that is unrestricted or only broadly directed.”

All unrestricted gifts to the main campus annual fund, the largest annual fund, go to financial aid.

Other general donations to the university happen through the annual Georgetown Fund, and the solicitation process takes many forms such as Phonathon — student calling — as well as the sending of letters and emails and the contribution of individual classes to reunion programming.

“A lot of the money we raise is raised by development officers who directly solicit support from a donor or multiple donors,” Moore said.

According to Moore, donors are more receptive to giving to the university after the end of the recession, particularly with the stock market boom benefiting wealth.

“The economic downturn is fading in people’s memories and there is an increasingly confident sense that we have returned to something more normal. People were less confident about giving away their hard-earned money, and that concern has now pretty thoroughly receded for most people,” Moore said.

Correction: This post previously said the $75 million McDevitt donation came in January 2011. It was actually given in December 2008. The post has been updated.

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