Giving exceeds $200 million in 2009 fiscal year

As of Sept. 21, the Aspire capital campaign has raised a total of $1.04 billion, with $16.3 million of that total raised after the current fiscal year began on July 1.

The $1.04 billion raised so far, roughly 59.4 percent of the $1.75 billion goal, has been amassed in roughly 60.7 percent of the campaign’s timeline.

Harmon said the capital campaign has weathered the economic downturn relatively well and added that the University remains optimistic it will meet its fundraising target by 2012.

“We believe that donors’ reduced economic circumstances accounted for a substantial proportion of the reduced total in commitments,” Harmon explained. “Donors to Princeton (and all not-for-profits) were affected by the financial crisis and, unsurprisingly, some who had been considering large gifts postponed making those commitments.”

Despite the downturn, there was only a small decrease in the number of donors over the last two years. The University received 43,777 gifts during the 2008 fiscal year and 42,948 during the 2009 fiscal year.

Harmon also emphasized the strong performance of Annual Giving, even though it fell $11.4 million short of its $56 million goal for its 2008-09 campaign.

“Despite the difficult economy, Annual Giving posted its third highest dollar total in Princeton’s history,” Harmon said, noting that “the number of donors to Princeton remained nearly constant even as the markets collapsed.”

“Our volunteer leaders are determined to sustain the momentum of last year’s extraordinary effort for Annual Giving,” he added.

Harmon said the goal for the 2009-10 Annual Giving campaign is $46 million, but he added that the University has not yet finalized fiscal year 2010 fundraising goals for the Aspire campaign.

“Given the fact that very large gifts can make big differences and the economy and tax policy can also impact year-to-year totals, we did not set a specific goal for the end of the 2nd year of the public phase,” Harmon said.

“However, we do have a metric that we use for tracking that compares actual totals to a pure linear progression,” Harmon continued. “This simple model tells us that we should have been at $1 billion exactly as of June 30, 2009. Our actual total at the time was slightly higher: $1.026 billion.”

The Aspire campaign has received two nine-figure donations so far. Gerhard Andlinger ’52 donated $100 million in July 2008 to accelerate research on effective and sustainable solutions to problems of energy and the environment, and Peter B. Lewis ’55 gave $101 million in January 2006 to enhance the role of the creative and performing arts both on campus and in the Princeton community.