What is the VSE survey?

CAE's Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey is the authoritative national source of information on private giving to higher education and private K-12 schools, consistently capturing about 85 percent of the total voluntary support to colleges and universities in the United States. CAE has managed the survey - now conducted entirely online - as a public service for over 40 years.

About a quarter of the nation's 4,000 institutions of higher education and about 250 precollegiate institutions fill out a survey each year. The survey collects data about charitable support, such as the source of gifts, the purposes for which they are earmarked, and the size of the largest gifts. Data on deferred giving and bequests are also collected. Questions about enrollment, expenditures, and endowment enable users of data to control for the size of the institution when conducting comparative research.

Reporting is consistent with guidelines set forth by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

What are the survey's origins?

The Council for Aid to Education (CAE) has conducted survey research on private support of education since the 1950s, when it assumed responsibility for a survey conducted by the now-defunct American Alumni Association. Over the years, this responsibility has evolved into a large-scale annual research and dissemination effort, the Voluntary Support of Education Survey (VSE). The VSE survey is co-sponsored with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Many higher education and pre-college associations are "cooperating organizations" in the survey effort.

Where can I get a copy to use offline?

Higher Education
- Full Survey
- Partial Survey
- Minimal Survey

Precollege
- Full Survey
- Minimal Survey

Why should an institution participate?

Regular survey participation provides an institution a structure for summarizing its fundraising results. This structure enables your institution to develop better internal data. By adhering to national fundraising reporting definitions and to a common reporting timetable, institutions make it possible to benchmark their own efforts over time and compare results with peer institutions. CAE publishes data and makes them available on line by subscription through its VSE Data Miner service. Participants can purchase the annual VSE report (print edition) at a 35 percent discount.

The data can be used to identify an institution's fundraising strengths and weaknesses, which can help inform future advancement efforts. The VSE archive goes back to 1969 and can be used, by arrangement with CAE, for historical research. VSE data give quantitative support to statements and releases issued to the press, and they make compelling focus points for speeches and presentations.

Besides educational institutions, who else uses VSE data?

CAE itself uses data to develop reliable national estimates of giving to education and to report in detail to the nation on private support of education. This information informs institutions, their trustees, state systems of higher education, the press, and those who craft public policy.

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) uses survey data for its "Circle of Excellence Awards". A primary eligibility requirement for the CASE awards, in addition to CASE membership, is three consecutive years' participation in the VSE Survey.

Also, many corporations and foundations review the information in the VSE report before making decisions about support of particular institutions.

Several state systems of higher education have made the VSE their reporting vehicle. They require campuses to report, and they use the results to monitor and analyze fundraising results. Since the VSE is an established survey with an existing Web presence and benchmarking capacity, systems have found it is more efficient to use VSE than to "reinvent the wheel."

Who is eligible to participate?

Any accredited institution of higher education and any precollegiate institution that wants to participate can participate. Contact us at vse@cae.org or (212) 217-0878 to find out more about the program.

How much time does it take to do the survey?

This varies considerably depending on the amount of detail your institution chooses to report, whether you've replied in the past, the internal records you keep, and the software, if any, you use to analyze those records. The required questions do not usually take a long time to answer, but some institutions choose to do a more detailed version of the survey, which takes more time and requires more complex record keeping. The important thing is to do the version of the survey that makes sense for your institution. You can look at all versions of the survey on this site, and you can request assistance at vse@cae.org or (212) 217-0878. 

What if we were unable to complete the survey due to the deadline or other factors?

The published report will not be amended once data have been downloaded. However, institutions wishing to fill in back years or add data to optional questions they left blank during the survey can do so virtually at any time. CAE also welcomes corrections to old data. The data on the site are always the most accurate and recent data available. Institutions benchmarking on the Web with their VSE Data Miner subscriptions are using a dynamic platform where the newest data are instantly available.

While using VSE Data Miner's benchmarking program, I saw some data that do not make sense to me. Is there a way to find out more about it?

CAE makes a concerted effort to clean data and question institutions whose data appear out of line with national trends or their own historical data. Contact CAE when ever you see data that do not appear accurate. Typically, we will be able to explain, correct, or delete it. Send a message to vse@cae.org.