The recently released Council for Aid to Education survey has identified that for the first time ever, a University, Stanford, has raised more that $1 billion in a single-year period.
Most articles I reviewed about this report observe that the amount raised is good news for colleges given what has been bad economic times. Some also observe that while the news is great, it's only great for the "haves" versus the way-less connected colleges who aren't in the top 10 which collected 17% of all the money.
The one story I didn't hear was the role of trustees in this successful fundraising. We of course hear the message all the time that nonprofits that succeed in raising money do so because trustees get involved. I wonder how much that is true for the institutions that were the big winners in college fundraising. I for one would certainly welcome the Council's telling more on this part of the story now that we know (and probably knew all along) that the money for causes hasn't gone away -- it just hasn't been tapped.