Private donations—from individuals, corporations, and foundations—are a major revenue source for colleges and universities in the United States, but little is known about the sources of the great variation among schools. The research reported here estimates the influence of such variables as whether the school is public or private nonprofit, its solicitation efforts, size, and endowment wealth, and the publicity it receives for its achievements. Our research distinguishes between the effects of achievements in athletics and in academics, the effects of each of those on various donor groups, including the disaggregation of individuals into alumni, parents, and other individuals, and the effects not only on total donations but on giving to athletic and to academic programs.
Burton Weisbrod, John Evans Professor of Economics, Northwestern University
Jeffrey Ballou, Economist, Mathematica Policy Research Evelyn Asch, Research Coordinator, Higher Education Research Project, Northwestern University
Click on
the working paper title at the top of this
page to download a free pdf of the paper.*
If You Need to Order a Hard Copy: Hard copies
of IPR working papers cost $5.00 each (international orders are $10 each). We only accept checks drawn on U.S. bank and payable in U.S. funds. Checks or money orders should be made
payable to Northwestern University and sent to the following address:
Publications Department - WP Orders
Institute for Policy Research
2040 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208-4100.
For information, call 847-491-8712 or email ipr@northwestern.edu.
Please note that we do not accept credit cards.
*Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 (or higher) is needed to read the Acrobat pdf.
If you need to install Acrobat Reader, click the button below. Once the file
has downloaded onto your desktop, run it to install the reader on your hard
drive.
