6 Higher Ed Fundraising Stats to Shape Your 2025 Strategy

As a higher education fundraising professional, it can be easy to feel isolated from other universities and institutions. When you’re entrenched in planning campaigns, researching donors, and fostering supporter relationships, you may lose sight of the outside factors impacting your work. 

However, engaging with sector-wide trends and opportunities is essential to improving your university’s fundraising outcomes. As you develop your strategic plan for 2025, remember to assess external trends and circumstances in the higher ed fundraising sector that offer your institution both challenges and opportunities. 

To help you get started, we’ve compiled six essential higher-ed fundraising trends and statistics to review while building your strategy. Even if you can’t attend every higher education fundraising conference or keep up with every new report, these statistics will give you a good starting point for designing a strategy that aligns with the greater fundraising landscape. 

Giving USA 2024 unveiled a major win for higher education giving in 2023, highlighting the record level of support the sector received from generous donors. However, several indicators suggest that higher education fundraising may not see the same success in 2024. Challenges such as economic uncertainty, declining trust in higher education, and concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) have all presented obstacles to higher ed fundraising this year. In fact:

“Q1 2024 philanthropic giving data shows a complex picture for Higher Education institutions. The number of donors decreased by 8.2% compared to Q1 2023, while the total dollar amount donated increased by 60% on average with a median growth of 18%.”

Source: EverTrue

Don’t bank on the same strategies you’ve always used. Your plan should be flexible to account for any unexpected challenges and opportunities that may arise. This ensures that you don’t get complacent and that you can respond effectively to external situations. 

Prioritize donor retention. Focusing on retaining donors is a cost-effective approach for universities, as donor acquisition can cost five times more than retaining an existing supporter. Current donors already have strong ties to your cause and a history of financial support. With the right stewardship strategies in place, such as personalizing your outreach efforts and expressing frequent gratitude, you can maintain these donors’ support for years to come. 

Diversify your revenue strategy. Revenue diversification helps make your fundraising efforts more resilient, even in the face of potential declines. Even if one revenue source falls short of expectations, you can offset it with other streams. Pursue revenue channels such as individual mid-level and major giving, grants, foundation giving, and corporate partnerships.

“Based only on data from institutions that participated in the 2023 survey, the increase in organizational giving is driven by a 3.2 percent increase in giving from corporations, a 1.8 percent decline in foundation giving, and a 4.4 percent increase in giving from other types of organizations. Some of the ‘other organizations’ increase is likely driven by transfers from donor-advised funds (DAFs).” 

Source: CASE Insights on Voluntary Support of Education

An analysis of DAF giving from 2020-2022 found that a quarter of all grant funding from DAFs went to higher education. DAFs are an increasingly popular and vital form of financial support for universities.

• Host staff training on best practices for soliciting DAF funding. Ensure your fundraising team is aligned on best practices for identifying prospective DAF donors and promoting this giving option to supporters. Give staff members a script or talking points for asking donors if they have DAF accounts and whether they’d be interested in using them to support your institution. 
• Enhance your DAF communications strategy. Show donors how their DAF contributions positively impact your university, from supporting students’ education to furthering research.
• Create a DAF information page on your website. Include information about how donors can contribute DAF grants to your institution. Highlight specific giving outlets, such as scholarships or sponsorship opportunities.

“5.8 — Average number of solicitations larger higher education institutions send to new graduates within the first twelve months after graduation… This practice of aggressively soliciting new graduates raises ongoing questions how cultivation and engagement efforts can take a back seat to the demands of fundraising.” 

Source: 2024 Voluntary Alumni Engagement in Support of Education (VAESE) report

We agree 100% with the underlying concept here—asking for donations from recent graduates too soon and too aggressively can have the opposite effect. Treating new graduates like ATMs can inadvertently turn them away, perhaps leading them to never submit a gift to your university.

We recommend giving alumni, especially new graduates, opportunities to engage with your university without the expectation of donating. Plan engagement opportunities like: 

• In-person and virtual networking events
• Volunteer opportunities
• Homecoming and class reunion events

You may also offer additional benefits to alumni through their local alumni association chapter. These include mentorship opportunities, social activities, and career workshops. 

Show alumni you appreciate their ongoing involvement with your university beyond just donating. In return, they’ll be much more willing to give when you send a donation request.

“Amir Pasic, dean of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said he was encouraged by the growth in mega donors, or those who contributed gifts totaling $100 million or more. There were 11 such gifts in 2023, which accounted for 3.9 percent of total support. That’s more than double the 1.8 percent of funds collected through seven mega donations in 2022.” 

Source: Inside Higher Ed’s recap of the CASE Survey

The CASE survey noted that the 11 mega gifts made in 2023 came from various sources, including bequests, corporations, living individuals, DAFs, and foundations. These contributions represent transformational gifts for the universities that received them, allowing them to achieve ambitious educational and research goals.

It’s time to revamp your major donor cultivation approach if you haven’t done so recently. You should tailor your major donor outreach to each prospect’s unique interests. However, these tips will help you get started: 

• Share data and impact reports that illustrate the impact of major gifts.
• Invite prospective major donors to meet one-on-one with your university’s president.
• Work with a higher education fundraising consultant as needed to help create a customized strategy to better reach your unique major donor prospect pool. 

“Nearly 60% of administrators claim their institution uses AI… [but] less than a third of higher education professionals have personally engaged with AI in their work.” 

Source: Ellucian report on the use of AI in higher education

AI solutions, and specifically AI fundraising tools, are here to stay. Now is the time to incorporate AI technology alongside your existing fundraising solutions into your strategic plan.

• Create a responsible AI policy. BWF’s guide to responsible AI recommends prioritizing data privacy and security, ethical and fair use, and transparency in your AI approach. You should also emphasize explainability—clearly articulate why you’re using AI tools and how they benefit your fundraising efforts. This will help mitigate any potential negative reactions from your audience.
• Explain your AI fundraising use on your website. According to Kanopi’s higher ed web design guide, “Potential and current students want to know that your university is on the cutting edge of these technologies that will profoundly impact their daily lives, so your AI information should be easy to find on your website.” Create a webpage that explains how AI tools fit into your fundraising strategy, which specific solutions you use, and how you keep donor information secure while using those tools.

The higher education sector continues to see new trends and developments, so use industry resources to keep up with the latest reports. Blogs like Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and CASE are all excellent sources of reliable information about fundraising in the higher education sector. 

Use the statistics and emerging trends in this guide to create a sustainable, flexible strategic plan that gives your university a data-driven framework for success.