“The nonprofit world has been waiting to see tangible signs of true recovery, and 2013 clearly demonstrated that for the leading philanthropists it is time to give back and to give back in a significant way. Across the board, the mega-gifts that came to define campaigns in the early years of this century have now returned in a way that is in many ways even more powerful than what we saw before the Great Recession took hold. Faith in the market and faith in an improving economy led to near record totals of very large gifts in 2013, and these gifts came on top of an especially poor year for large donations in 2012. The controversies surrounding the election, the large gifts made to political action committees, and the anxiety produced by negative political rhetoric aimed at the wealthy kept big gifts artificially down in 2012 despite the bull market. All of this changed in 2013, and support by the very rich for all types of nonprofit organizations, but especially for higher education, has come roaring back.”
- 2013 Giving To Higher Education: The Big Gift Revival – Marts & Lundy
