Dive Brief:
- State disinvestment has been a key donor pitch for nonprofit foundations of colleges and universities, but in Rhode Island, some of the money raised during times of low state funding have gone back to the governor.
- Inside Higher Ed reports that the University of Rhode Island Foundation offered $10,000 to cover Gov. Gina Raimondo’s expenses for a trip to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, and the Rhode Island College Foundation pledged $210,000 per year to cover a state innovation officer’s salary.
- In both cases, other donors pushed back against the payouts, arguing the foundations should be focusing on campus, but leaders of the foundations say the initiatives they fund pay back their institutions with increased opportunities for students and faculty.
Dive Insight:
Any higher education administrator understands the delicate sense of equilibrium surrounding donations. Donors themselves can be skittish with their money, wanting guarantees that it will be used for purposes they support. Restricted donations make up the vast majority of giving at some institutions and foundations, causing problems as high up as whether or not to keep a school open, as Sweet Briar College learned this past summer.
Students and alumni also have a tendency to push back against the donations of specific people, like Charles and David Koch. Western Carolina University is taking extra care in creating a Koch-funded economics policy center. And an UnKoch My Campus movement has gained steam among students wanting to sever all ties between their colleges and the controversial philanthropists. Schools need money to offer more opportunities to students, but they have to be careful about where they get it.