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UK universities received a record number of donations in 2012-13, according to a survey of 136 higher education institutions.
The report, carried out every year by the Ross Group and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (Case), reveals a 23% increase in cash income for universities in 2012-13.
A total of £659.8m was given in cash donations in 2012-13, excluding pledges and gifts in kind, compared with £534.6m in 2011-12. Universities also saw a 6% rise in donors, with just under a quarter of a million making gifts during that year.
Tania Jane Rawlinson, director of campaigns and alumni relations at the University of Bristol and chair of the Ross Group, says: "These findings bear out a broader trend in higher education philanthropy that is transforming the sector. Successful fundraising universities are those with a clear mission statement and realistic goals around fundraising."
The number of alumni giving back to universities increased by 60% in the last academic year, with 174,000 former students making donations. The report indicates a broader trend in the number of alumni giving, with a steady increase recorded over the last three years.
Liz Morrish, 54, is a lecturer in linguistics at Nottingham Trent University and a graduate of Leeds University where she studied an undergraduate degree in linguistics and phonetics and a PhD in phonetics. She set up monthly donations to Leeds around five years ago.
She says she wants to give back to her university because she received a free education on a full scholarship and is concerned about students now having to pay £9,000 fees.
"My motivation comes from a conscience and a wish that other people might have the same unfettered chances and options that I did. I spent a lot of time in the US and I suppose I absorbed some of their ethic. [Alumni giving] is a big part of their sense of continuing affiliation."
In total, 59% of cash given from 2012-13 was from organisations and 41% from individuals. In addition to alumni and others, university staff, parents of students, and patients at university partner hospitals were identified as individual donors.
The largest individual cash gifts during this period were made to the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, King's College London, Nottingham Trent and London Business School.
Tim Cobb, head of development and alumni relations at Nottingham Trent, says: "We've had a number of five figure donations from former students. We have to work as hard as we can to encourage former students to remain engaged."
However, the survey also found that the amount of money pledged to UK universities by donors last year fell by more than 10%.
There were 1,198 fundraising staff working across the universities surveyed in 2012-13. This figure increased by only 44 during the period, despite a recent report by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) saying this workforce will need to "double, if not triple" if universities are to reach the goal set out in the 2012 Pearce report of raising £2 billion per year from 640,000 donors by 2022.
Kate Hunter, executive director of Case, says: "The survey demonstrates the correlation between the size of the fundraising workforce and the amount of philanthropy raised. For this figure to continue to rise, further investment in professional staff and broader engagement with the academic community is needed.
"It is hugely encouraging to see such a strong increase in cash income and the number of donors giving to UK universities. Organisations and individuals are giving, in growing numbers, to support the work of universities across teaching, learning and research."
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