U.S. News & World Report recently published a ranking of the historically Black colleges and universities with the highest giving rate for alumni. The rankings were based on the average percentage of alumni who donated to the particular educational institution between 2012 and 2014.
Leading the list was Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. There, an average of 48.9 percent of alumni donate to their alma mater each year. Several years ago Claflin University mounted a “First to 50″ campaign with the goal of being the first historically Black college or university to achieve a 50 percent alumni giving rate. That was achieved in 2013 when the alumni giving rate reached 52 percent. This past April, Claflin announced that Phase 1 of its Imagine the Possibilities campaign raised nearly $90 million exceeding the $80 million goal. Over the life of the fundraising campaign, some 87 percent of Claflin alumni made contributions.
Ranking second on the most recent U.S. News list of HBCUs with the greatest percentage of alumni making donations was Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. There, an average of 38.2 percent of alumni made donations between 2012 and 2014. Spelman College in Atlanta ranked third with an alumni giving rate of 37.4 percent. Rounding out the top 10 were (in rank order): Tuskegee University, Fisk University, Livingstone College, Johnson C. Smith University, Tougaloo College, Morehouse College, and Fort Valley State University.
