U of I and Foundation Receive $190.5 Million in Private Gifts During Past Year

Total Giving Increases 3 Percent to U of I; Gifts from Alumni and Friends Up $18.8 Million or 9% Over Previous Year; Total Endowment Grows by Nearly 23 Percent in Year

Gifts to the University of Illinois and the U of I Foundation for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2007, totaled $190.5 million, according to Walter K. Knorr, U of I chief financial officer and treasurer of the U of I Foundation. Of the $190.5 million received, $54 million was designated to the U of I directly and $136.5 million was contributed through the Foundation. Total private giving increased three percent over the previous year.

Knorr announced the private gift figures during the business session of the Foundation’s 72nd Annual Meeting, held today (Friday, Sept. 28). The Foundation is the private gift procurement arm of the University of Illinois.

Knorr told the audience of over 400 elected Foundation members and Presidents Council donors that “the University has continued to make strong advances in teaching, research, public service and economic development. Many of these advances are financed, in part, by the generosity of the private gifts that alumni, friends, corporations, foundations and associations entrust to Foundation stewardship.”

Of the $190.5 million in private support received last fiscal year, $83.1 million, or 44 percent, came from alumni and friends, $50.9 million (27 percent) was from corporations, $36.8 million (19 percent) was from foundations and $19.7 million (10 percent) was from associations. Giving from alumni and friends alone increased by nine percent or $18.8 million over the previous year.

Private gifts support a number of programs across the campuses at Urbana‑Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. Last fiscal year, $54.3 million of the $190.5 million raised was added to the endowment. Student financial aid in the form of scholarships, fellowships and student loans received $4.2 million in contributions. Donors to the University of Illinois provided $27 million to academic divisions, $47.6 million for research, $10.1 million for buildings and equipment and $13.7 million for public service and extension. Gifts to U of I athletics at all three campuses increased by $1.8 million over the preceding year totaling $9.4 million.

Of the $190.5 million received last year, 69 percent or $131.4 million was designated by donors for current use. Those funds provided support to a number of programs across all of the University’s campuses. Twenty‑eight percent or $54.3 million was invested in endowed funds, which are held in pooled investment accounts under the policy supervision of the Investment Policy Committee of the Foundation Board and the Finance and Audit Committee of the University Board of Trustees. Earnings from endowed funds help support an array of University endeavors, including student financial aid, faculty and programs.

The University of Illinois’s combined active and deferred endowment stood at $2.197 billion as of June 30, 2007—an increase of nearly 23 percent over the previous fiscal year. The active endowment, which represents 69 percent of the University’s endowment picture, grew to $1.515 billion by the end of last June.

Also included in the U of I’s total endowment is $543.3 million in revocable deferred gifts designated to the endowment. Another $138.4 million is in charitable trusts and other irrevocable gifts held by the U of I Foundation and others that are designated to the endowment.

The Foundation’s endowment goal is to provide a distribution to the University each year to meet its spending needs coupled with a desire to protect the purchasing power of the endowment against inflation. “Total market returns,” Knorr said, “combined with new‑gift development have produced a total endowment today that is nearly two and one‑half times what it was ten years ago, rising from $892 million to $2.197 billion. That translates to total endowment growth of nine percent annually over the past decade.”