If the start of the 1990s bore witness to several universities raising 10-digit sums of money for the first time, it seems as though there will be no trailing off at the decade's end.
Last week, Harvard University President Neil L. Rudenstine revealed the unprecedented collection of more than $2.3 billion over a seven-year period.
More than 172,000 donors contributed to the success of this campaign, which for the first time included tapping the fiscal resources of female, West Coast and younger alumni.
By comparison, Dartmouth's most recent capital campaign, The Will to Excel, ended in 1996 and raised $568.2 million over a six years time period.
One explanation for why Harvard achieved an average of $1 million per day over seven years stems from its large alumni base. Harvard currently has 210,000 alumni while Dartmouth has approximately 50,000, the College's Director of Development Carolyn Pelzel said.
During The Will to Excel, Dartmouth raised the equivalent of $233,000 per day.
Stanford University was the first top school in the nation to raise over a $1 billion. Like Harvard, their large alumni base helped made this possible, Pelzel said.
The early years of this decade were a testament to other massive Ivy-League fundraisers.
In May 1992 Yale University initiated a $1.5 billion campaign while the University of Pennsylvania undertook a $1 billion effort in October 1989. In its last campaign, Columbia University raised $1 billion and extended the campaign to accumulate another billion.
"A campaign is still the most effective vehicle to raise significant sums for those kind of initiatives," Pelzel said.
Though not a part of an extensive campaign, Dartmouth raised $106,893,429 last year alone, the greatest annual sum in the College's history.
According to Pelzel, the College has pushed to increase Alumni Giving since the end of The Will to Excel campaign.
In the past three years, the Fund has grown 44 percent, Pelzel said.
According to Pelzel, three factors contribute to the increase in endowment at the College. A strong stock market coupled with successful capital campaigns, as well as aggressive post-campaign fundraising. The quality of the institution also contributes to the fiscal growth.
No date has been announced for the next fundraising campaign, but given national trends and the planned upgrade of facilities and residential components of the College, a drive could occur in the near future.
"The time between campaigns nationally is getting shorter and shorter. It's fair to say the president [James Wright] and others are thinking of it," Pelzel said.
Pelzel also said that while the endowment has grown both through gifts and investments per student, Dartmouth lags behind other competing institutions.
"I fully expect we will be raising more money in the future to bolster it," Pelzel said.
The president of an institution is usually charged with determining when a campaign is necessary, Pelzel said.
Launching a campaign requires extensive organization and manpower. Planning originates within an institutional framework where priorities -- such as academics -- are identified. The plan is then developed and realized over a five-to-seven-year period, Pelzel said.
"It's a huge process and it's customary when planning a capital campaign to increase the size of the development organization. Dartmouth did increase the size of its development organization and it paid off," Pelzel said of The Will to Excel.
According to the latest US News and World Repots on college rankings, Dartmouth ranks only behind Princeton University in percentage of alumni giving. Dartmouth, however, has targeted both the percentage and actual value of contributions.
"[Development has] multiple objectives in any given year, and we always approach each and every alumnus and alumna in our constituency to encourage as many as possible to make contributions," Pelzel said. "Another objective is to raise the maximum dollars for the institution, and encourage those who do so to be as generous as possible."
Charitable contributions from alumni cover about 10 percent of the College's annual operating budget, Pelzel said. At Harvard, donations account for 28 percent of their $1.8 billion budget.
