First College To Raise $1B Is Stanford University

The first college to raise $1B is Stanford University. The money was raised in one year, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Stanford ranked first for the eighth year in the Council for Aid to Education’s annual college fundraising survey. The survey shows that elite institutions still grab a disproportionate share of money from donors.

About 3,500 US colleges and universities raised $31 billion in the 2012 fiscal year, according to Yahoo! News. The number is 2.5 percent more than the year before.

Stanford University came in first with 1.035 billion. Harvard University was second at $650 million, while Yale University came in third with $544 million.

Along with being the first college to raise $1B, Stanford University also raised 46 percent more money in 2012 than it did the previous fiscal year. The next year to come close was 2006 when the school received $911 million. The massive haul is essentially $56,000 per student that attends the school.

The Christian Science Monitor notes that Ann Kaplan, the survey director, stated:

“We’re climbing out of the doldrums. 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 business.”

Stanford currently has 18,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Much of the money raised will go toward construction and research projects. Nearly 79,000 people contributed to the massive donation amount, including $100 million of a $150 million gift from Silicon Valley investor Robert King and his wife Dorothy.

The money from King will establish the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies. Are you surprised to hear that Stanford University is the first college to raise $1B?

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