Each year we share, with our clients and others, an analysis of the trends in educational philanthropy for top performing institutions. The base data for this analysis is the Council for Aid to Education's Voluntary Support of Education survey. The institutions selected for study were those with the highest overall average for total philanthropic giving for the last ten years. In order to be included, the institutions must have reported data in each of the last ten years.

We offer this analysis to you to use in comparing your institution to some of the "best" in terms of overall support, and as a series of data points for sharing with colleagues and Board members interested in the benchmarks for your market segment. This will be of primary use to institutions beginning to think about campaigns in order to see how the balance of priorities may blend with giving preferences. Institutions can see if their needs are comparable with the current landscape in philanthropy.

One word of caution: because these are averages of a large sample of institutions, you won't see the peaks and valleys in giving apparent when examining one single institution. The averages of the large group smooth out the more circumstantial development issues, such as a new president or the beginning of a campaign. Please click on the particular category that interests you to be directed to a registration page. There you will be able to download the appropriate PDF file at no charge.

The analysis includes trends for the following categories:

• Public Research Universities.pdf
• Private Research Universities.pdf
• Liberal Arts Colleges.pdf
• Day Schools.pdf
• Boarding Schools.pdf

The personal income data is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. The source of the data for the NYSE composite index and the NASDAQ is BigChart.marketwatch.com.