Post by Logan on May 9, 2016 18:44:13 GMT -6
Rowan University turned to private donors recently to buy its president a $1 million home, which it claimed was needed, perhaps ironically, to entertain donors to the state school. Alumni giving at Rutgers rose from $66.7 million in 2006 to $187.9 million in 2015. And William Paterson University tripled the donations to a scholarship fund that this year awarded more than $1 million to students.
New Jersey’s state colleges and universities are relying more heavily than ever before on fundraising — for extras, like tricked-out sports facilities at Rutgers, but also for basics, like student scholarships.
“Fundraising is no longer icing on the cake,” said Nevin Kessler, president of the Rutgers University Foundation. “It is the cake.”
The strategy of reaching out to well-to-do alumni is considered vital because the state now pays for less than 25 percent of colleges’ operating expenses, down from half just a decade ago. And while the infusion of private money can raise questions about who is calling the shots in public education, the fundraising arms race, nonetheless, is on.
Read more: www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-state-colleges-brushing-up-on-fundraising-tactics-1.1568620
New Jersey’s state colleges and universities are relying more heavily than ever before on fundraising — for extras, like tricked-out sports facilities at Rutgers, but also for basics, like student scholarships.
“Fundraising is no longer icing on the cake,” said Nevin Kessler, president of the Rutgers University Foundation. “It is the cake.”
The strategy of reaching out to well-to-do alumni is considered vital because the state now pays for less than 25 percent of colleges’ operating expenses, down from half just a decade ago. And while the infusion of private money can raise questions about who is calling the shots in public education, the fundraising arms race, nonetheless, is on.
Read more: www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-state-colleges-brushing-up-on-fundraising-tactics-1.1568620