Stanford University is 1st college to raise $1 billion

Stanford University has set a new record for college fundraising, becoming the first school to collect more than USD 1 billion in a single year, according to a report released today.

For the eighth straight year, Stanford ranked first in the Council for Aid to Education's annual college fundraising 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 USD 31 billion, 2.3 per cent more than the previous year. The record was set in 2008 when schools took in USD 31.6 billion before fundraising dropped during the height of the financial crisis.

"We're climbing out of the doldrums," said survey director Ann Kaplan. "We haven't returned to the high point of 2008, but we're approaching it. I think you can say that about a lot of industries."

Topping the list was Stanford at USD 1.035 billion, followed by Harvard University at USD 650 million, Yale University at USD 544 million, the University of Southern California at USD 492 million and Columbia University at USD 490 million.

The top 10 fundraising colleges collected USD 5.3 billion, or 17 percent, of the USD 31 billion, even though they represent only 0.3 per cent of the 3,500 accredited, nonprofit schools included in the survey.

Stanford benefited from a surge in donations at the end of its multi-year Stanford Challenge fundraising campaign, which netted USD 6.2 billion.

The 10-campus University of California system raised USD 1.56 billion, which doesn't include money collected by its individual campuses. UC Berkeley was the leading fundraiser among all public universities, taking in USD 405 million.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford's alumni list includes the founders of major tech companies like Yahoo Inc. who have given to the school in recent years.

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