Contributions to the Nation’s Colleges and Universities Decline in 2009, Charitable contributions to colleges and universities in the United States declined 11.9 percent,to $27.85 billion, according to results of the annual Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey, released today by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE). The 2009 decline is the steepest in the survey’s history. In 1975, however, the inflation-adjusted decline (11.6 percent) was slightly larger than in 2009 (11.5 percent). Over the past ten years, contributions to higher education institutions have increased an average of 4.1 percent per year.

VSE 2009 Top Twenty Institutions and Results by State