Following the series of anti-Israel protests earlier this year, Columbia University has experienced a nearly 29 percent drop in donations during its 2024 annual fundraiser. During the protests, school officials called in the NYPD to break them up. University president Minouche Shafik resigned over the summer and the interim head who came in has since apologized for the school’s treatment of protesters. One protester has sued the school over being suspended over his antisemitic behavior.
Columbia’s “Giving Day” event in 2024 raised $21.4 million, a significant decrease from the $30 million it garnered in 2022, according to the Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper. The event was not held in 2023 due to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent protests on campus.
The university also saw a nearly 28 percent decline in the number of gifts, which dropped from 19,229 in 2022 to 13,870 in 2024, the lowest level since 2015 and the first time the total monetary amount of the donations declined from the previous year since the event began in 2012. In response to the decline, the Columbia Spectator stated that the university is currently facing a “donor crisis — born out of concerns regarding campus protests.”
The athletic department raised $4.6 million, Columbia College raised $3.5 million, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science brought in $3.2 million. […]
— Read More: thepostmillennial.com
