Stanford University is first college to raise $1.2b, sets new fund-raising record

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Stanford University has set a new record for college fund-raising, becoming the first school to collect more than US$1 billion (S$1.2 billion) in a single year, according to a report released on Wednesday.

For the eighth straight year, Stanford ranked first in the Council for Aid to Education's annual college fund-raising survey, which shows that elite institutions continue to grab a disproportionate share of donor dollars.

In the 2012 fiscal year, roughly 3,500 US colleges and universities raised US$31 billion, 2.3 per cent more than the previous year. The record was set in 2008 when schools took in US$31.6 billion before fund-raising dropped during the height of the financial crisis.

Topping the list was Stanford at US$1.035 billion, followed by Harvard University at US$650 million, Yale University at US$544 million, the University of Southern California at US$492 million and Columbia University at US$490 million. The top 10 fund-raising colleges collected US$5.3 billion, or 17 per cent, of the US$31 billion, even though they represent only 0.3 per cent of the 3,500 accredited, non-profit schools included in the survey.