FAYETTEVILLE -- Giving to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville totaled $134.2 million in the 12-month period that ended June 30, with university officials on Wednesday describing a goal to increase scholarships awarded to in-state students as part of its ongoing $1 billion fundraising campaign.
The school has raised about $657.1 million toward its Campaign Arkansas effort, the university announced, and its annual gift total increased by 2 percent in fiscal 2017 compared with the $131.6 million total for the previous fiscal year.
Gifts to UA support students, staff and faculty members, as well as campus programs and project efforts, said Mark Power, the university's vice chancellor for advancement.
Power said the university in the past has raised funds for scholarships supporting in-state students, but described the school's new Advance Arkansas scholarships as having an additional focus.
"This particular scholarship is unique in the sense that we're looking for students that have financial need of some sort," Power said.
Jennifer Holland, UA's director of development communications, said in an email that at least five Advance Arkansas scholarships will be awarded in the current academic year, with $520,209 raised thus far for new awards.
Chancellor Joe Steinmetz and his wife, Sandy, have donated $100,000 to establish new scholarships as part of the Advance Arkansas effort.
In a statement released by UA, Steinmetz said the larger fundraising campaign "is critical to our ability to increase access for more Arkansans, offer the best faculty for our students and provide them with innovative programs for their academic experience."
The university has increased its enrollment in recent years mostly by adding new freshmen from other states, especially Texas. About half of incoming freshmen last fall were from Arkansas.
Athletics giving, included in the annual gift total, added up to about $38.4 million, Holland said. The total decreased by 24 percent compared with the $50.3 million raised for athletics a year earlier. Athletics giving includes gifts to the Razorback Foundation, which supports the university's intercollegiate athletics.
The total includes gifts of various types, including cash, gifts-in-kind, planned gifts and new pledges. About $14 million raised was in endowed funds.
UA reported that 39 percent of the giving total came from corporations, up from 35 percent a year earlier. The proportion of such giving is higher than at other schools, on average, according to the 2016 Voluntary Support of Education survey, which found that corporations provided 16.1 percent of giving to higher education institutions.
Gifts from individuals made up 32 percent of the total annual giving, while 19 percent came from foundations and 10 percent from other organizations, including trusts and estates, according to UA.
The University of Missouri last month announced more than $152 million raised for its Columbia campus, a $19 million decrease from a year earlier, according to The Associated Press.
A report examining philanthropy to education found that giving increased by 3.6 percent in 2016, rising to $59.77 billion from $57.72 billion, said Laura MacDonald, co-chairman of the Giving USA 2017 editorial review board.
The report noted that the increase slowed compared with 2014 and 2015, as each year had increases of more than 8 percent in education giving.
"A younger generation is more apt to support something that they view as a cause and less apt to display the kind of institutional loyalty that other generations might have shown," MacDonald said.
But gifts to higher education often "can deliver a really tangible result for donors," MacDonald said, with funds going to specific purposes like a scholarship or research program.
The Campaign Arkansas initiative, an eight-year effort to raise $1 billion by June 30, 2020, held a public start event in September, and Power said the campaign is about boosting student success and advancing UA academically.
"We're very excited about what the next few years of the campaign will hold for the university," Power said.
Metro on 08/10/2017