The first benchmarking study for philanthropic giving to Australia's universities has been released by Queensland University of Technology's Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (CPNS).
The study, titled SOFAR (Survey of Fundraising and Alumni Relations), was compiled from a survey of 18 of the nation's 39 universities.
CPNS director Professor Myles McGregor-Lowndes said the survey results showed that the respondent universities had received $246 million in philanthropic donations in 2006.
"Of this more than 90 per cent had come from universities' alumni and corporate and foundation sources were also found to be important sources," Professor McGregor-Lowndes said.
"The figures suggest more people are recognising that, while government does and should fund higher education, philanthropy allows universities to take on another dimension of research or build pioneering facilities that would otherwise not exist."
He said the university sector was becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of the philanthropic dollar.
"Giving to universities in Australia is considerably below that of a country such as the United States with its stellar billion dollar individual gifts because we do not yet have a broad culture of giving to universities.
"Efforts to develop giving to universities are less than a decade old in Australia and already the picture has changed dramatically and we expect that future SOFAR results will track increased private support as programs gain momentum."
Professor McGregor-Lowndes said bequests and capital campaigns would be key areas of growth in future SOFAR surveys.
"The first SOFAR results suggest participating universities currently have a median known value of bequests pledged to them of $1.5 million," he said.
"The growing number of Australian millionaires and the property and mining booms mean baby boomers will retire with sizable financial assets, many with well beyond the needs of their family.
"It is likely more and more Australians will find a parcel of shares, property or a percentage of their estate to leave to a favoured institution as a bequest, once they have taken care of their family."
He said another area of probable growth in giving was from university leadership such as council members.
"Traditionally, in Australia people have felt giving time and expertise substituted for giving money but we are starting to see university leadership engage in giving more frequently, though not uniformly, across all participating institutions. The expectation from major donors is that the university's leadership back their belief in the institution with their own donations."
The universities in SOFAR included ones from the Group of Eight (Go8), Australian Technology Network (ATN), Innovative Research Universities Australia (IRU) and New Generating Universities (NGU).
The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies is located at the Queensland University of Technology. It brings to the community the benefits of teaching, research, technology and service relevant to philanthropic and nonprofit communities.
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
