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Contributions to IU set new record
Oct. 10, 2001
EDITORS: Charts with further details on contributions by school and campus and the sources of gifts are available. Call the IU Office of Communications and Marketing at 812-855-3911 to obtain copies.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Contributions to Indiana University from the private sector more than doubled in the last fiscal year, setting an all-time record of $230.2 million.
"This year, nearly 100,000 individuals and organizations made gifts to IU," said IU President Myles Brand. "We are grateful for this ringing endorsement of Indiana University as a 21st-century center of learning and research and an engine of economic development.
"And we are most appreciative of Curt Simic's exceptional leadership and the work of his dedicated staff and of everyone involved in development on all the campuses," Brand added. "In the words of Herman Wells, they are doing a great deal to 'take the benefits of education to the people of the wider community.' Their efforts and the generosity of our donors will enable IU to thrive now and in the future."
Curt Simic, president of the IU Foundation, said that "the spectacular increase this year is due in large part to the $105 million gift from the Lilly Endowment for biotechnology and the Indiana Genomics project. President Brand was instrumental in the process that made this gift a reality."
Also included in the total is $9.5 million in "promises to give," Simic added. New accounting standards for fund-raising reports now include pledges made during the year for gifts to be made in the future.
Even without the Lilly gift or the promises to give, the 2000-01 fiscal year total is still a new record, Simic said. In addition, the number of donors is the second-highest in the university's history and is less than one-half of one percent below last year's record total of 100,270.
"Everyone wonders how the economy and the events of Sept. 11 will affect fund raising," Simic said. "So far, we are optimistic. In fact, as of Aug. 30, we were ahead of last year at this time by $4 million in contributions. As of Sept. 30, we were ahead of last year by 1,545 in number of gifts and by 937 in number of donors. We understand that many individuals and corporations are supporting the agencies coping with the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, but we also see ongoing, strong support for IU."
A major campaign at IU Southeast in New Albany is progressing well, and the campaign for the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis is ahead of schedule as it closes in on its $700 million goal, Simic said. "Economic uncertainty may slow the rate of growth in contributions for a time, but we are confident that giving for IU will continue to grow."
The university's endowment, managed by the IU Foundation, also remains strong. "In fact," Simic said, "while the S&P lost 14 percent, the drop in our endowment was only 4 percent as of June 30." Sept. 30 numbers are not yet available.
"We know there will be a drop, but we took action years ago to protect the income stream going to IU against just such a market decline by calculating the disbursements based on a twelve-quarter rolling average of the market value of the endowment," Simic said. "Since the past three years have been ones of strong performance, IU's schools and campuses can count on receiving a steady income stream from their endowment accounts, at least for the rest of the academic year. At that point, we will need to look at what the market is doing."
In the past four years, income from the endowment going to the university increased from $75 million to $95 million annually.
(Barbara Coffman, IU Foundation, 812-855-1422, coffman@indiana.edu or George Vlahakis, OCM, 812-855-0846, gvlahaki@indiana.edu)