A Year in Review

In June, 2003, the University of Colorado and the University of Colorado Foundation celebrated a tremendous achievement: the conclusion of our Beyond Boundaries campaign. Over the previous seven-year period more than 150,000 donors from around the country donated over $1 Billion to support the University of Colorado’s students and faculty. Thousands of students are now benefiting from gifts to support scholarships and fellowships, dozens of faculty are now holding newly-endowed chairs, and numerous programs are stronger because of the support of donors, like you, who gave so generously.

Your gifts and continued support are still critically important to the University of Colorado. According to Henry Goldstein, Giving USA Foundation chair, “the economy is in what I would call partial recovery, there’s a war, there’s a threat of violence, there’s a political campaign that is nasty, and yet philanthropy is really quite robust.” As reported in their annual report, philanthropic support to all charities nationwide enjoyed a modest increase of 2.8% in the calendar year for 2003. However, gifts to education saw a decrease of 1%, which Giving USA contributes to a decline in capital gifts and slowed growth in annual giving.

Our results at the University of Colorado Foundation were mixed. While total dollars raised actually declined approximately 10% from the previous year, the number of gifts increased by 11%, to a near record of 59,635. Gifts to our annual giving program saw a dramatic rise, more than doubling the previous year from $1 million to over $2.5 million. We experienced the same decline in the number of major gifts and gifts to capital programs as mentioned nationally.

Gifts from corporations, foundations and other organizations remained stable, and accounted for 62% of our total donations, while gifts from alumni and other individuals represented 38%.

In one area, however, we remain very consistent. Nearly 96% of the gifts received by the CU Foundation for the University of Colorado are specifically designated to support students and faculty, to enhance programs, build library collections, equip laboratories, or any of a myriad of other purposes. We remain optimistic about the future and impact of the continued financial generosity of donors, like you, who care about higher education for the state and the nation. Quoting again from Henry Goldstein, “Philanthropic giving has maintained its share of gross domestic product at 2.0 percent or above since 1998 through recession, wartime, and other national crises. This fact confirms the historical finding that Americans are an inherently generous people.”

You are making a tremendous difference for the future of the University of Colorado with your gifts – and we thank you.

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