<p>Colleges Shift Donor Appeals Toward Student Aid</p>
<p>By Shelly Banjo, The Wall Street Journal
Last update: 9:21 p.m. EST Nov. 19, 2008Colleges and universities are actively encouraging donors to contribute directly to education rather than asking for big gifts toward buildings and programs.
The economic downturn is causing schools to refocus their fund-raising campaigns more on financial aid, scholarships or a school's general fund, which is typically used for a university's most pressing needs and often directed toward student aid.
In October, Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., increased its fund-raising campaign goal for undergraduate scholarships to $350 million from $225 million, which has "helped reinvigorate giving" specifically for this priority, says Simeon Moss, press office director at Cornell. While overall giving is down, donations directed toward undergraduate aid have soared to $63.4 million in fiscal-year 2008, from $13.7 million in fiscal-year 2007, he says.
"Given what's happening in the economy, we can delay building that new building, but we can't say to the entire sophomore class: Why don't you take a year off?" says Bobbi Mark, vice president of institutional advancement at Barnard College in New York. "Certain things have to be priorities, and financial aid is one of them," she says.
While many colleges say it's too early to assess the economy's impact on increased aid, many have seen families struggling. At Barnard College, if current families' net assets drop between 25% to 40%, "we'll need [to award] about $1.2 million" more to students' financial-aid packages "made up through additional grants or loans," estimates Greg Brown, Barnard's vice president of finance.
For that reason, Barnard is trying to attract increased donor interest in its endowed scholarship giving program, in which a donor (or group of donors) pledges $100,000 to provide tuition support to a specific student. Donors are then matched with their student recipients at a yearly gala at Barnard called the Torchbearers Reception and encouraged to keep in touch throughout the year.
"Other people may want to put their name on a building, but I want to see and understand what I am giving to," says Phylis Esposito, an investment banker from New York who started an endowed scholarship fund in honor of her mother. "When you invest in an individual's education, the contribution is very personal and the potential is unlimited," Ms. Esposito said of the four years she has supported a Barnard senior.
At Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., a number of families have been affected by the housing crash and job losses, says Karen Cooper, director of financial aid. The school has seen an "increase in demand for aid above and beyond our expanded aid commitment, so we do expect a larger expenditure on aid," said a spokeswoman at Stanford. An estimated 70% of the financial-aid budget at Stanford comes directly from its endowment, Ms. Cooper says.
At state universities, where government funding has already been scaled back, schools are asking alumni and parents for increased donations toward student scholarships. In October, the University of Texas at Austin announced a new $3 billion fund-raising campaign with a "primary focus" on making school affordable, says UT campaign director Carolyn Connerat. The amount of giving toward scholarships at UT is up by $4 million from last year.
"Since one of the pillars of our campaign is scholarship and student support, I expect it to keep going up," says Juan M. Garcia Jr., UT's assistant vice president of development.</p>