Generosity of alumni continues in recession

Colleges and universities, which have seen their endowments skid with the economy, are finding they still can count on the loyalty of alumni.

Washington and Lee University will announce today that it has received a $17 million donation — a generous gift for a liberal arts college even during the best of times.

"I think in these times it's extraordinary," Dennis Cross, vice president for university advancement, said of the gift from alumnus Gerry Lenfest of Philadelphia.

Last week, the College of William and Mary announced a $6 million gift from a New Yorker who attended the school for one semester. But that came as no surprise to Sean Pieri, W&M's vice president for university development.

The donor, real estate developer Sherman Cohen, has been a longtime friend of the college, he said.

"It's a lifetime relationship," Pieri said. It also is the type of relationship his staff works to cultivate.

"We call it development, not fundraising," he said. "Development is about relationships."

While schools report donations are holding steady for the most part, optimism is tempered by a recession forecast to be long and deep.

"I'm not worried about this year," Pieri said. "I'm worried about next year."

He said the average gift to W&M's annual fund this year has dropped 12.6 percent — from $270 to $236 — and that comes on top of budget cuts and the drop in endowment value.

Universities and colleges saw dramatic declines in their endowments the first quarter of this fiscal year.

The University of Virginia's long-term investment pool, which includes its endowment, decreased from $5.1 billion on June 30 to $4.2 billion on Oct. 31. That's about a 20 percent decrease for U.Va., whose endowment ranked 20th in the nation last year.

The University of Richmond's endowment, ranked 44th nationally, declined from $1.7 billion to $1.45 billion.

Washington and Lee's endowment dropped to $622.7 million from $722.9 million, while William and Mary's went from $580 million to $490.7 million for that period.

Public schools such as W&M and U.Va. are bracing for more bad news next week, when Gov. Timothy M. Kaine plans to announce another round of state budget cuts.

But even in hard times, the fundraising must go on.

W&L's Cross points to research showing colleges and universities generally fare better than some other types of nonprofits during economic downturns.

"Over time, higher education tends to do well in any economic cycle because we tend to have very loyal alumni who value their education," he said.

Those loyal alumni include Lenfest, a philanthropist who graduated from W&L in 1953 and also attended its law school.

With his most recent donation, Lenfest has made a $50 million commitment to the school's faculty. His $17 million donation will establish two endowments supporting faculty sabbaticals and summer research.

It comes a year after he gave W&L a $33 million challenge gift to keep faculty salaries competitive.

But small gifts count, too, and add up for universities.

W&L's annual fund received $6.8 million last year, with an average gift of $620, Cross said. About 62 percent of that amount came from 730 donors who gave $2,500 or more.

These gifts "accumulate and make a big difference," he said, because their use is not restricted in the way large donations generally are.

He said he tells donors that the $6.8 million given last year was equivalent to the income the university would earn in interest on an unrestricted endowment worth $140 million.

So far, annual fund donations are running slightly ahead — by about 1 percent — of where they were at this time last year, he said.

Virginia Tech reports its major fundraising campaign remains on target. The campaign that began in 2003 had brought in $714.5 million as of Oct. 31, about 70 percent of the goal expected to be reached by December 2010. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, the campaign has received 91 commitments of $50,000 or more.

U.Va. says its campaign is also on track, at $1.79 billion through October. The five-year campaign seeks to add $3 billion to the university's endowment by 2011.

Virginia Commonwealth University's annual fund campaign has received $6.4 million through Oct. 31. That's down by $1 million from the period last year, excluding a major gift to the health system.

At the University of Richmond, donations are down only slightly from the year before, said Tom Gutenberger, UR's vice president for advancement.

From July 1 to Nov. 30, UR had raised $4 million, which is $88,000 less than last year for that period. But that includes $2.5 million given to the annual fund, for which donation amounts are actually up by 50 percent.

The number of donors to the annual fund has risen as well. Through November, 3,552 people — an additional 515 contributors — had given to the fund.

"People are honoring their pledges," Gutenberger said.

He said his staff stresses that participation at any level counts, and they are making a point to stay in touch with alumni even in the hard times.

"We have to make sure we're still present in their lives," he said.

Karin Kapsidelis is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.