Gifts to U. rank fourth in nation

The University ranks fourth out of all U.S. colleges and universities in the amount of money it receives in voluntary contributions and gifts, according to a report issued this month by the Council for Aid to Education. Between July 1990 and June 1991, the University received & $143,384,123 in contributions from a variety of sources, including & alumni, individuals, corporations, & foundations and other groups. The University was outpaced & only by Harvard University, Stan - ford University and Cornell Univer - sity -- which respectively hold the top three slots -- in overall giving. Rick Nahm, senior vice president of development and planning, said that the University's fourth place finish is important in a historical sense. "What's important about Penn, & putting this in perspective, is that we've been [number] four two con - sective years," Nahm said yester - day. The University ranked fifth & three years ago, but traditionally held spots between tenth and twen - tieth in the rankings. "Clearly the Campaign for Penn that we're in the middle of has had an impact on our ranking relative to the pack," he said. The University began its current capital campaign in the fall of 1989, and at this point is far ahead of schedule in securing a goal of $1 billion in donations within half a decade. Nahm emphasized that despite the University's high placement in the fundraising survey, it is difficult to make comparisons with other & schools. The primary goal of fun - draising, he said, is to increase the amount of total donations each & year. "We're very pleased to be num - ber four," he said. "We don't pay much attention to rank because & each institution has its own & constituency." "You can't live or die by those numbers because the important & thing is that we received $142 mil - lion and that's the largest amount the University has ever received," he added. Nahm said the rankings can be volatile, since one or more large corporate donations or publicity ab - out a new fundraising campaign in a given year could bridge the small gaps between two positions. The survey also ranked the & amount of support schools received strictly from corporations. The Uni - versity placed 19th, with $20,273,166 -- or one-seventh -- of its voluntary funding supplied by outside firms. Nahm said that while University fundraisers have made efforts to increase corporate support, this & subranking is even more volatile because of the economic factors af - fecting corporations. Cornell, for example, ranked & third, with one-quarter of its total voluntary support supplied by cor - porations. Top-ranking Harvard, & however, ranked 15th -- firms sup - plied just one-eighth of that univer - sity's total voluntary support. Nahm said that due to the na - tional recession, many schools have lost ground in obtaining corporate donations. Schools in the Midwest and on the Pacific Coast remain successful in this area, though, be - cause the recession has had less of an effect on local industries in those regions. According to the report, U.S. col - leges and universities received gifts of $10.2 billion between July 1990 and June 1991, an increase of $400 million from the year before. How - ever, the increased giving was out - paced by inflation by one percent, leading to a net decline. The top ten schools in the survey all received over $100 million in & gifts each: Harvard, $196 million; Stanford, $181 million; Cornell, $177 million; the University, $143 million; Yale University, $132 million; the University of Wisconsin at Madison, $128 million; Columbia University, $128 million; the University of Cali - fornia at Berkeley, $118 million; & Duke University, $114 million; and the Massachusetts Institute of & Technology, $110 million.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.