Colleges Raised $78 Billion, 89% of Which Came From 2% of Donors

Colleges and universities raised $78 billion in fiscal year 2025, but most of that came from just 2 percent of donors, according to the most recent Voluntary Support in Education report released Tuesday.

Compiled annually by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the report offers one of the first glimpses into how fundraising fared in 2025. It included 670 colleges and universities and covers July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. 

The report notes that colleges and universities are experiencing the same fundraising trend as other organizations in the nonprofit sector — more dollars are being raised in total but from fewer donors: Specifically, 89 percent of all funds raised came from just 2 percent of donors.

Sue Cunningham, CASE CEO, says that when she started fundraising three decades ago, around 80 percent of dollars came from 20 percent of donors. “Since then, it’s really shifted,” she says, due to a growing wealth divide, “which is concerning no matter what angle you look at it.”

To shift the donors-to-dollars imbalance, universities should focus on building a pipeline of donors and on ways to better engage all donors, says Jenny Cooke Smith, executive director of CASE insights in data, research, and technology.

Campuses Are Trying to Engage Younger Donors

The report indicates that much of the growth in donors was seen among alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago. 

To counteract this, campuses are trying to engage younger alumni and alter their outreach methods. “What drives younger generations to give is impact, which institutions are really focused on now,” Cunningham says. “The older model of, ‘I studied at Institution X, and therefore I will give to Institution X’ cannot be presumed. That’s not the relationship that exists now with institutions.”

Laura MacDonald, president of the Benefactor Group, which works with many college and university fundraising departments, says her clients are trying to engage students and alumni earlier and more often.

“Every institution I have encountered is trying to take steps to engage students when they’re on campus and/or the moment they graduate and become alumni to strengthen their bonds,” MacDonald says. Waiting for them to go out into the world before sending them their first solicitation is not a recipe for success, she says.

Cooke Smith notes that CASE plans to publish a donor-engagement survey later this spring that will explore the myriad ways campuses are trying to engage alumni. “Our younger alumni are absolutely engaging with our institutions,” Cooke Smith says. “They’re not necessarily doing so in a monetary way.” Colleges and universities view young alumni as a long-term investment, she says.

Because that investment may take years to pay off, it requires a shift in how fundraisers are evaluated. “Advancement offices continue to be judged on the cost per dollar raised, [but] they’re being required to do a whole lot of early alumni engagement that isn’t going to be showing up in the form of gifts for years,” MacDonald says. She is seeing advancement teams shift how they measure success. They’re setting goals to increase the number of donors, for example, not just goals tied to dollars raised. 

The $78 billion raised was 4 percent more than the previous year, but that figure has not been adjusted for inflation. The report included these other notable findings. 

Bequests were up. Both actual bequests — and donors saying they intended to leave a bequest were up. In 2025, bequests were 24 percent of gifts, compared with 20 percent in 2023. While many predicted the great wealth transfer would lead to heirs receiving gifts, Cooke Smith says people may be spreading their wealth among their favorite charities, too. 

Most gifts were designated. Eighty-one percent of all contributions were designated for specific uses, and the most common areas of support include student success programs, such as advising and tutoring, financial aid, and research. However, unrestricted giving grew by 24 percent, which could be attributed to federal funding cuts in early 2025, Cooke Smith said.

Gifts and commitments to public institutions outpaced those to private ones. About 64 percent of public institutions saw an increase in funds received, but 55 percent of private ones did. When it comes to money committed —  donor pledges and informal promises to give — public institutions also held an edge: 58 percent saw an increase, compared with 53 percent of private institutions. Both Cooke Smith and MacDonald cautioned that outlier big gifts at institutions can account for some of this fluctuation. The report includes median data by geographic region to help campuses determine how they’re faring compared to nearby peers.