Foundations lead university to record-setting year

Big-ticket donations from foundations to the University of Alberta helped push the philanthropic envelope during the 2016-17 fiscal year into record-breaking territory.

Between April 1, 2016, and March 31, 2017, the province’s largest university received $176.6 million from 19,684 donors ranging from foundations and corporations to individual donors like alumni. The figure does not include any money from government.

That’s up significantly from the $115.3 million contributed in the 2015-16 financial year from 18,152 donors.

The previous record of $119.4 million was set in 2013.

Two major projects — including the largest gift, at $40 million, from a single organization in the university’s history from the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation — is credited for the increase; however, the university says smaller donations make up the “vast majority” of gifts.

“It’s those smaller donations that really add up,” vice-president of advancement Heather McCaw said in a recent interview.

“Even in the case of the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, thousands of individual donors give to them because they believe in the impact that research can have on saving lives and we’re a partner in that.”

The two main donations include the $40 million last June from the Stollery to the Edmonton-based Women and Children’s Health Research Institute and a portion of a $25-million gift earlier this year from the Aga Khan foundation to build North America’s largest Islamic-inspired garden at the university’s botanic garden.

McCaw said donors continue to be interested in gifting money because of the size of the university, quality of researchers, varying areas of interest and existing infrastructure.

Of the money received in the 2016-17 financial year, about 64.2 per cent will go to research; 21.4 per cent to academic programs like student experiential learning, student research projects and any new kind of academic programming or enhancing existing ones; nine per cent to capital projects and another 5 1/2 per cent to scholarships and bursaries.

“It’s really rare that I speak to a donor that we don’t have capacity to work with them on their passion or area of interest,” McCaw continued.

Between 2015 and 2016, postsecondary institutes across the province cumulatively reported a 35 per cent drop in gifts, contributions and fundraising totalling around $352 million, with many of the province’s colleges the hardest hit.