New gift and pledge amounts to the University decreased 3.6 percent between Fiscal Year 2014 and Fiscal Year 2015, according to the Board of Visitors Advancement Committee meeting Sept. 18.
But the committee said total new commitments reached $338.9 million when combined with new future support, a 19 percent increase over Fiscal Year 2014.
Gifts are typically represent one-time donations, while pledges reference a set amount over a certain number of years. New future support, however, includes bequest expectancies committed to the University to be received or realized at a later date, but are revocable, University Deputy Spokesperson Matt Charles said in an email statement.
“The real change may simply be in how donors chose to make their gifts (the specific tools they use), not their commitment to or interest in giving,” Charles said.
University President Teresa Sullivan said it is important to note the areas of growth as well as the areas which struggled. Based on the bigger picture, last year was a very good year financially, she said.
“Overall development views themselves as having had a very good year last year,” Sullivan said. “I think you have to look at both what’s up and what’s down before you draw a conclusion.”
While the Class of 2014 had a record-setting 81 percent of students pledge to contribute to the University, the Class of 2015 experienced a 20 percent decrease, with only 61 percent of students pledging contributions, said Grace Newick, chair of the Fourth-Year Trustees’ Class Giving Committee. Newick said this may be partially attributed to the events which transpired last year.
“In previous years, the motivation behind encouraging people to give has always been ‘U.Va is such a wonderful place, you’ve enjoyed your experience so much, why not give back to the school that you’ve truly loved all four years,’” Newick said. “And then last year was a really unenjoyable year for a lot of students.”
While the Class of 2015 tried to address the issue by encouraging students to donate to organizations and causes that they cared about — such as AccessUVA and supporting affordable tuition or Green Dot and bystander intervention — the 3.6 percent decrease in new commitments “ties back into how difficult of a year [2014-2015] was at U.Va.,” Newick said.
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