Johns Hopkins ranks fourth among U.S. universities in fundraising in 2016

Johns Hopkins University ranked fourth in the nation in fundraising in 2016, receiving $657 million in philanthropic contributions, according to the Council for Aid to Education's annual Voluntary Support of Education survey, which was released Tuesday.

Johns Hopkins, which is currently in the midst of the $5 billion Rising to the Challenge campaign, has ranked among the top six in fundraising in each of the past four years.

The Rising campaign—which was publicly announced in May 2013 and is expected to run through June 2018—focuses on increasing support for the faculty, clinicians, and students of Johns Hopkins, in particular through endowed professorships and scholarships. As of Dec. 31, more than 244,000 donors had committed more than $4.6 billion. A complete campaign progress report can be found at rising.jhu.edu/progress.

"Johns Hopkins has enjoyed a remarkable history of philanthropic support from alumni, friends, parents, and grateful patients, and this past year is clearly a breathtaking accomplishment for the university and health system," said Fritz Schroeder, vice president for development and alumni relations. "However we have also seen incredible growth in the number of alumni and friends who support the university. As an example, last year more than 38% of our undergraduate alumni made gifts, an all-time record. It is this amazing blend of incredibly generous gifts and a growing and vibrant base of support that is truly helping to propel Hopkins on its journey."

Overall, charitable giving to U.S. colleges and universities totaled $41 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June 2016. The 1.7 percent growth rate from 2015 is significantly lower than the 7.6 percent growth rate from 2014 to 2015.

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The growth rate comes to 0.4 percent after adjusting for inflation using the consumer price index, said Ann E. Kaplan, who directs the annual survey. It represents a decline of 0.1 percent using the Higher Education Price Index, which is designed specifically to track costs for higher education.

The top 20 fundraising universities accounted for 27.1 percent of the $41 billion in total giving.

Harvard University led all universities with $1.19 billion in fundraising in fiscal 2016, followed by Stanford ($951 million); the University of Southern California ($667 million); Johns Hopkins ($657 million); and the University of California, San Francisco ($596 million).