According to a new report from the Council for Aid to Education, charitable giving to U.S. colleges and universities rose 3.4 percent last year to a record $24.4 billion.

According to the report, the Voluntary Support of Education Survey, the increase was driven by a 9.7 percent jump in giving from individual donors, including a 21.5 percent surge in gifts from non-alumni individuals, which offset a 6.1 percent decline in giving by private foundations. Harvard University topped the list, raising $540 million, while UCLA, tenth overall, raised $262 million, the most of any public university. Overall, alumni donations accounted for 28 percent of giving, while non-alumni individuals accounted for 21 percent, foundations contributed 25 percent, and corporations were responsible for 18 percent; the remaining 8 percent was contributed by religious and other organizations.

Survey director Ann Kaplan called the results "not too bad" and credited the overall increase to a stronger economy and more effective fundraising. "Fundraising behavior has a strong effect," Kaplan said. "The number one reason people make gifts is being asked. Without that, the economy's not going to have much of an effect on giving."

Nevertheless, while total alumni giving rose 2 percent, to $6.7 billion, the percentage of alumni donating fell, for the third year in a row, to 12.8 percent. Kaplan told the Associated Press that could be because colleges are keeping better records and simply have more alumni to target. But she also speculated that they may be focusing on securing larger donations from major donors rather than working to expand their alumni donor pools. If that's the case, she added, the strategy could backfire. "Alumni who make small gifts tend to be the people who end up making large gifts."

To download the complete report (49 pages, PDF), visit: http://www.cae.org/content/pdf/FullFY2004.pdf.