Alex Hickey, Senior Writer
The University is increasingly turning to private donors to provide funding for student financial aid as state funding has fallen in recent years.
Private donations currently finance 20 percent of the share of the academic budget, compared to 13 percent in 2005. The increase in philanthropic funding reflects a decline in public funding, which has shrunk from 27 percent in 2005 to 10 percent in 2012 in the academic division.
The University raised $1.5 million in 2009 for AccessUVa, a need-based financial aid program. Today over $10 million is raised annually for need-based aid, the majority of which is used to fund the Blue Ridge Scholars program, begun last year.
Mark M. Luellen, senior associate vice president for development, said the University is allocating new and current resources to engage donors around scholarship support in a benchmarking project along with other top private and public institutions.
“Last year alone, alumni, parents and friends committed nearly $340 million to the University,” Luellen said in an email statement. “Based upon the increase in support in recent years, we know that a growing number of our donors and potential donors are interested in supporting scholarships.”
However, a large portion of the University’s $4 billion endowment spending is not left to the University’s discretion to use for financial aid but is subject to donor specifications. In 2013, a $12.4 million donation was used exclusively for a squash facility per the wishes of an alumnus’ foundation, an event that drew some criticism from student activists around grounds.
Hoping to avoid contention surrounding such allocations, President Teresa Sullivan has mentioned using a system which directly links donors and students as a way to motivate donations and inspire a pay-it-forward loyalty system to the institution.
The Blue Ridge Scholars program currently uses extensive public relations campaigns with photos, videos and background stories of scholarship recipients to motivate donations. The program today helps pay for the tuition and fees of 67 university students.
The University has seen tremendous success in recent years in receiving private philanthropy. An alumna recently contributed approximately $1.2 million for need-based scholarship in what was the donor’s first major donation to the University, Luellen said, who expects the number of donations like this to continue growing.
Additionally, the University’s Cornerstone Plan has placed more emphasis on raising scholarship funds to ensure the top students can attend the University despite financial situation and need, Luellen said.
“Simply put, private philanthropy provides the margin of excellence to help the University of Virginia continue to be one of the very best institutions in the country — public or private,” Luellen said. “[P]hilanthropy provides the strategic resources that are needed to recruit the very best talent, in a very competitive environment, as it relates to both faculty and students.”
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