Development Pulse Survey Report: Annual Campaign & Endowment Trends March 2022

Author
Odelia Epstein, Traci Reisberg
KC Media Type
Research
Knowledge Topics
Fundraising & Development, Research
Catalyzing Resources
Network to Learn
Image
Developement_Pulse_Survey_Fall_2022_1920x1440.png

This pulse survey report explores FY21 and FY22 development trends and the state of Jewish day school endowments. This year, the results from Prizmah’s survey show a shift from reactionary fundraising during the pandemic, to resilience, and donors are maintaining, and some even increasing, their annual philanthropy. The past two years had a heavy focus on pandemic-related fundraising and specific concerns about how parents and families would be affected by various pandemic financial pressures and whether that would impact their ability to give philanthropic dollars to schools. Schools are now more confident in their fundraising, and donors are maintaining (if not increasing) their gifts to schools.

Endowment funds are finding their way to the top of the fundraising priority list. Schools and communities are engaging in conversations about endowment. Schools are currently engaged in or planning to launch endowment campaigns in the near future. With the rising interest across the field on affordability, we know endowments are going to play an important role in enabling schools to create more affordability initiatives.

Key Findings

Annual Fundraising

  • In FY21, 80% of respondents were able to raise the funds needed to meet their annual campaign goals. Two-thirds of respondents reported they exceeded their FY21 fundraising goals.
  • More than half of schools reported increasing their annual campaign goal from FY21 to FY22. Eighty-one percent of respondents project that their school’s will meet or exceed their FY22 annual fundraising goals.
  • The percentage of schools reaching their fundraising goals has increased. The percentage of schools reporting that they did not reach their annual campaign goal has decreased from 45% in FY20 to 21% in FY21.

Endowment

  • As of June 30, 2021, the top two reported endowment valuations were $62M and $54M. In comparison, as of June 30, 2020, the top two reported valuations were $46M and $45M. Endowment valuations have increased significantly from last year. This is the result of both strong stock market performance and schools’ ability to secure additional endowment funds.
  • The total valuation of the reported endowments is approximately $700M.
  • Of the 27 schools that reported not having an endowment, nearly 50% are planning to launch an endowment campaign in the next five years, while an additional 41% are interested in doing so in the future.

*Throughout the report we use the abbreviation FY to refer to the 12 month period of the school fiscal year.