Donations to U.S. Colleges Dropped in 2009 by 11.9%

The recession has had a strong impact on money raising by private universities.

Private donations to U.S. colleges and universities dropped 11.9% in 2009 from the previous year to $27.85 billion, according to the Voluntary Support of Education Survey released this week by the Council for Aid to Education.

The 20 institutions that raised the most in 2009 received $7.28 billion — $1.13 billion less than the top 20 institutions raised in 2008, the Council said.

The top 20 institutions in terms of donations dollars raised in 2009 are:

Stanford University
Harvard University
Cornell University
University of Pennsylvania
Johns Hopkins University
Columbia University
University of Southern California
Yale University
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Wisconsin-Madison
New York University
University of Washington
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Duke University
University of California, San Francisco
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Michigan
University of California, Berkeley0
University of Chicago

WSJ has the full dollar breakdowns here.