Donations to Harvard drop 15Percent in tumultuous year
Summary
Gifts to the school’s endowment, an important source of support for its operations, fell 34%.
Donations to Harvard University fell nearly 15% in a year when some high-profile donors said they would stop giving money to the school over its handling of antisemitism on campus.
Harvard said in a financial report Thursday that it received $1.17 billion in gifts in the year that ended June 30, down from $1.38 billion in the same period the year before.
Gifts to Harvard’s endowment, the university’s investment fund, fell 34% to $368.1 million. The endowment itself gained 9.6% for the fiscal year.
The endowment is a crucial part of the school’s operations. Distributions from the endowment made up 37% of Harvard’s revenue for the year, the university said.
A separate form of donations—gifts that the university can spend now—rose 8.6% to $527.7 million. It was the second-highest amount received in Harvard’s history, the university said.
Harvard and other universities around the country have been rocked by pro-Palestinian protests after Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the region, and how the schools responded drew fierce criticism from some high-profile donors. Claudine Gay resigned as the university’s president in January over her response to campus antisemitism and mounting allegations of plagiarism.
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has said he paused donations to Harvard over his alma mater’s handling of antisemitism on campus. The family foundation of investor Len Blavatnik had stopped donations late last year.
Two Harvard task forces said in June that it found that Jewish, Muslim and Arab students were harassed, bullied and discriminated against on campus.
Harvard said in its financial report Thursday that the task forces are working on “rebuilding not only a sense of belonging but also genuine acceptance among members of our community."
Alan Garber, Harvard’s president, had indicated that donations would be down in an interview published last week in the Harvard Crimson, the university’s newspaper.
“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years," Garber said.
“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future," he added.
The report Thursday acknowledged that the school had been through a challenging year. “Our University will emerge stronger from this time—not in spite of being tested, but because of it," Garber wrote.
Write to Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com
