Donations to SLU down sharply

CANTON — Coming off three straight record-setting years, St. Lawrence University had a precipitous drop in donations last fiscal year, with a 40.4 percent decrease from 2007-08.

The college received gifts totaling $14,228,754 in 2008-09, which ended June 30. That's almost $9.7 million less than the record $23.9 million it took in from donors the year before.

"We're used to going in the other direction," Vice President for University Advancement Michael P. Archibald said. "There's no question that this was a challenge. At the same time, given the severity of the economy and the way people felt about it, and the psychology behind it particularly, by late fall we were no longer surprised. We could tell this was going to be a different year."

Individual donors gave 36.2 percent less on average to St. Lawrence in 2008-09.

The average gift from the 9,060 donors was $1,570.50 last fiscal year, compared with $2,461.87 in 2007-08. At the same time, there were 6.6 percent fewer donors compared with the year before.

Much of the college's decreased gift revenue can be attributed to having fewer big donations and bequests than usual, Mr. Archibald said. Whereas in 2007-08 SLU received three extraordinary one-time gifts that totaled more than $7 million, the college had only one donation of $1 million or more last fiscal year.

The college is hearing from its most well-off and generous donors that their financial advisers want them to hold on to their assets until the stock market turns around, Mr. Archibald said.

While overall giving fell by almost $10 million, unrestricted gifts to the college's operating fund were down only about $750,000, Mr. Archibald said.

"We are very optimistic for the future. Yes, it matters; it's a lot of money. But this is not something that's going to debilitate the school in any way," he said.

Gifts to the St. Lawrence Fund, which supports ongoing operations at the university, dropped less than those to other funds. Individuals gave $4,583,068 to the St. Lawrence Fund in 2008-09, a 13.9 percent decrease from the year before.

The Alumni Fund and the Parents Fund, which both go toward the St. Lawrence Fund, were down 13 percent and 20 percent, respectively, from their record-setting numbers in 2007-08.

St. Lawrence is on par with many other peer institutions for the reduction in annual fund donations this year, Mr. Archibald said.

"The saying 'flat is the new up' has relevance in our business recently," he said.

Donations to Momentum St. Lawrence, the university's campaign to raise $200 million by Dec. 31, 2010, sank 62 percent last fiscal year. The college raised $12,480,094 toward the campaign in 2008-09, for a total of $150.3 million.

Mr. Archibald said that there is a possibility the college will have to push the deadline for the Momentum St. Lawrence campaign back, but he is still confident it won't have to.

"If we stay the course, we're going to have a bounce-back year. I don't think we've seen the final effects of the recession. It's a cautious return to optimism. I think we're going to build on the year we just completed and in three or four years at the most, we'll get back to setting records," Mr. Archibald said.

SLU is in the midst of cutting its $100 million annual operating budget by about 5 percent, Mr. Archibald said. The college has increased the amount of financial aid that it is giving to students at the same time that the value of its endowment, which contributes 10 percent of SLU's budget each year, has dropped.

There was one bright spot in St. Lawrence's financial performance in 2008-09. The college received 13 percent more grant revenue than the year before from foundations, corporations and organizations, for a total of $1,567,844.