The stock market was good to wealthy colleges in 2017.
Gifts to the 20 institutions that pulled in the most in donations last year grew 10.5 percent from the year before, according to a report released Tuesday by the Council for Aid to Education, an organization that tracks college giving. Those top 20 schools took in $12.23 billion last year — roughly 28 percent of what universities raised overall, the report found. In 2016, the top 20 fundraisers took home $11.07 billion.
Charitable giving typically rises with the rest of the economy, said Ann Kaplan, vice president at the Council for Aid to Education and the author of the report. And the rise in the stock market last year also helped.
College access advocates have often complained that the schools receiving the most in charitable gifts are already wealthy schools that educate a small part of the college-going population. Over the past few years, elite, wealthy colleges have started to take notice, vowing to do more to bring in economically disadvantaged students.