Donations to University of Hawaii rise 65% to record $165 million

Donations to the University of Hawaii rocketed to a record of nearly $165 million in the latest fiscal year, with UH officials saying the 65% increase over the year before was spurred by a strong economy, improved strategy and the community’s growing confidence in the state’s public university system.

The $164.98 million was almost double the $84.7 million raised two years earlier. The money came in 22,436 gifts from 18,074 donors, according to the University of Hawai‘i Foundation, the private, nonprofit foundation contracted as UH’s sole provider of fundraising and alumni services.

The benchmark continues UH’s historic momentum in fundraising: The university in July announced a separate record in extramural funding, at $505 million in fiscal year 2022. Extramural funding is a different category made up of external investments from the federal government, industry and nonprofit organizations that support research and academic activities conducted by university faculty and staff members.

When asked what has caused philanthropic donations to rise so dramatically, Tim Dolan, UH vice president of advancement and CEO of the foundation, said, “I think people trust the direction of where the university is headed.”

Donors want to know that their money is going to benefit Hawaii’s community, Dolan said, and they like seeing the 10-campus UH system lately “moving in a direction to themes like research that matters for the community, and workforce development — things that are … not ivory tower issues, but are tangible for the people of Hawaii. I think that resonates. And I think that, more than anything, is explaining why donors are giving at this level.”

Dolan and UH President David Lassner in an interview pointed to goals cited in the first-draft outline of a new strategic plan for the UH system. They include providing education to a larger portion of Hawaii’s population, eliminating the state’s shortages of teachers and other high-demand workers, and improving equity for Native Hawaiian students and employees among its many goals.

The record giving, Lassner added in a news release, is “a strong endorsement of UH’s strategy and effectiveness as we focus on increasing access and graduation rates, diversifying Hawaii’s economy, and preparing a new workforce as our faculty, students and alumni tackle the grand challenges of sustainability, energy, climate resilience, conservation and community health.”

While the UH of earlier generations could rely easily on state general funds, Lassner said, the recession in the 1990s changed that and heightened the importance of fundraising and creating a closer working relationship with the UH Foundation. After Lassner became president in 2014, “we really made a joint commitment between the Board of Regents and the UH Foundation to double down our efforts to really come together,” he said.

The effort “reset the relationship” between the two entities, improving communication about UH’s latest directions and needs, Lassner said.

When the foundation can communicate the university’s goals and needs and match them to a potential donor’s passion, Dolan added, “that’s when the magic happens.”

The burgeoning economy, which has created bigger returns in real estate and other sectors, also has nudged donors toward increased giving nationwide, Dolan said.

And the COVID-19 pandemic also has been a catalyst for donations, Dolan said. Many Hawaii residents were shaken seeing how easily the state’s tourism-based economy was hurt, and so “the relevance of a strong university to a strong local economy, I think, is becoming more and more apparent to more people,” Dolan said.

“My hope, my dream, is to see this $165 million being sort of normalized,” Dolan added. “Of an almost $2 billion budget (for UH), $165 million is right in the sweet spot of what we should be doing every year. We have to be doing a better job of convincing more and more people that investing in us is really the smartest way to invest in Hawaii.”

The largest gifts to UH in the fiscal year July 1, 2021, to June 30 came from various organizations ($62.8 million), friends of the university ($48.7 million) and corporations ($21 million). When donations were sorted by their intended purpose, the most money went to research ($68.2 million), student aid ($35.4 million) and special programs ($31.5 million). (See accompanying chart.)

Among the largest individual gifts, and gift categories, to benefit UH were:

>> $50 million from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, to UH Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. The seven- year commitment to support various research groups within the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology was the largest cash gift ever to the university.

>> $10 million, also from Chan and Zuckerberg, to the UH Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine to fund a program aimed at alleviating the physician shortage on Kauai.

>> $3.7 million from multiple donors for the Residences for Innovative Student Entrepreneurs, a live-work-learn project for entrepreneurs that is under construction at UH Manoa and set to receive its first students in fall 2023.

>> $3 million from an anonymous donor to UH Hilo. The gift, that school’s largest ever, is divided into three $1 million scholarships for Hawaii Island residents, first-in-family college students and students who identify as LGBTQ+.

Money raised from people rose 35% from the previous year to $48.68 million, the foundation said. That was more than double the $22 million raised from that category in 2020.

Alumni giving grew to $14.16 million, from 10,389 alumni. The increase was almost 53% over the previous year.

Giving from parents and students grew to $354,150 from $330,909. Gifts from faculty and staff grew to $2.76 million from $2.1 million.