Harvard tops fundraising as colleges reap $43.6b

NEW YORK: U.S. colleges led by Harvard and Stanford reaped a record $43.6 billion in charitable contributions in the last fiscal year, thanks to booming stock markets.

The richest schools continue to get richer, with less than 1 percent of all colleges accounting for almost 30 percent of the total for the year ended June 30, the Council for Aid to Education, which tracks university giving, said in a survey released Tuesday. The previous record was set a year prior at $41 billion. But the federal tax overhaul enacted in late December could dampen some future contributions because the increase in the standard deduction eliminates incentives for many taxpayers to give, and the effects may vary state by state.

"You don't know who's going to fall into what category," said Ann Kaplan, the survey's director. "The details are so complicated, there's no way to know how that stratification is going to affect any institution. It's not clear how changes in the law will affect giving."

Contributions for fiscal 2017 climbed 6.3 percent, fueled by an 18 percent total return for the S&P 500. College endowments gained an average of 12.2 percent on their investments in that span, according to the National Association of College and University Business Managers and Commonfund.

Harvard topped the list for the second straight year with $1.28 billion in contributions, a record for the school, according to survey data. Harvard has raised more than $1 billion annually for the past four years, according to the survey. Stanford followed in fiscal 2017 with $1.13 billion. Stanford had been the No. 1 beneficiary for much of the past decade.