Foreign Donors Swell Harvard's Coffers

Cabot, Lowell and Weld are as "Harvard" as names can get. A tradition of large donations from Boston bluebloods has made walking through campus feel like a stroll through a New England graveyard.

Until you pass by the Naito Chemistry Lab, or meet one of Harvard Law School's Binladin Fellows--funded by the family of accused international terrorist Osama bin Laden. Harvard's biggest donors are no longer just New England's richest--in recent decades, they have grown to include the world's richest.

With the most successful Capital Campaign and the largest endowment of any university in history, Harvard's billions are pouring in faster than ever before. In the process, Harvard is also diversifying its sources of funding, receiving money from governments, companies and private individuals as far away as Jordan or Japan.

And why shouldn't the University look overseas for cash? Think of the research possibilities the Southeast Asian Studies program would have if the Sultan of Brunei endowed them.

But some donations bring their own problems--when Osama bin Laden's name was in the headlines, Harvard officials had to defend the University's association with his family.

"It's clear the Saudi bin Laden money is being put to good use here," then-Harvard spokesperson Alex Hupp told Time Magazine.

As Harvard's foreign sources expand, University officials have subjected the donors and their gifts to the same level of scrutiny as domestic donations. This means screening out donors that might embarrass Harvard, and vetting donors' goals to make sure they fit Harvard's academic aims.

From Foreign Shores

One thing to remember, University President Neil L. Rudenstine says, is that most of the money the University gets from any donor is solicited for a specific purpose.

When Harvard wants to build a new center for research or to endow a new professorship, donors are not usually lining up outside of Mass. Hall to pay for it.

Instead, the particular school or the University Development office pursues donors who they think will be most enthusiastic about the project.

John S. Lacey in the Medical School's (HMS) News Office says that HMS generally comes up with its own projects, and then looks for money to make them happen.

"We have an idea and we present it to a donor," Lacey says.

Those potential donors are often Harvard alumni. Because of the strong international presence at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), that school is one of Harvard's leaders in international donations.

KSG Dean Joseph S. Nye says that KSG alumni represent over 130 nations on all of the continents except Antarctica.

"The president of the Jordanian Senate is also a member of the Harvard Club of Jordan," Nye wrote in an e-mail message.

While KSG received gifts in the campaign from about 900 international donors, most of these came from alumni, representing 72 countries.

Private citizens are an important source of funding--even the KSG professorships named after the Sultan of Oman and the late King Hussein of Jordan were partially funded by private donations.

According to the Office of Sponsored Research, the University has received about $5.8 million in sponsored research funding from foreign governments since June 30, 1998.

Much of the money comes from three major grants. One is from an Indonesian bank; one is from the national university of Singapore and one is from a provincial government of India. All three are for academic work on public policy, and fall in the $1-2 million range.

A recent gift of $2.5 in endowment funds from His Highness The Aga Khan '58 will fund The Aga Khan Professorship of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism in Islamic Societies at the Graduate School of Design.

The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, also gave $1.5 million in 1979 to establish the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at the GSD. In 1987, he contributed to funding for GSD's Center for Urban Development Studies at the Harvard Design School.

Head East, Young Man

During his time at Harvard, Rudenstine has twice gone to Asia. Recently, Chinese university presidents congregated at Harvard to meet with U.S. university presidents. University Provost Harvey V. Fineberg '67 has also trekked to the Eastern Hemisphere.

"It's raising Harvard's banner in the region," says Paul T. Keenan '85, director of East Asia Operations for the UDO.

"Harvard has a tremendous reputation in Asia," Keenan adds. "It's not unusual for people to become excited...They often will throw a dinner on behalf of the president and welcome him to the country."

The current capital campaign drew significant amounts of money from Asian sources, Keenan says.

One focus has of this solicitation been the Asia Center, a University-wide program housed in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences "intended to try to integrate all the programs around the University," Keenan says.

The center serves as a common facility for Harvard experts on Asia as well as members of the Asian business, political and intellectual communities.

"The knowledge on China at the Fairbank Center might help the Business School write reports on Chinese business," Keenan says. "The sum can be greater than the individual parts."

The center needs $30 million, of which $11 million has already been raised.

Keenan points to Minoru Makihara '54, the head of Mitsubishi Corp., as a pivotal figure in Harvard's Asian fundraising.

Makihara is just one example of an individual who has made "a tremendous difference in our international initiatives," Keenan says.

The Outer Limits

The Aga Khan's gifts, focusing on the Islamic world, are typical of many gifts from foreign donors--focused on an area of study with which the donor has a national or religious affinity.

But sometimes, foreign donors--like domestic donors--want their gifts to go to a purpose Harvard doesn't want to accommodate. There have been times when the University has turned down money because it did not fit in with Harvard's academic plans or needs, Rudenstine says.

Nye says that his school is careful not to accept gifts that stray too far from the school's academic focus.

"The School will not accept gifts from donors for areas where KSG has no institutional expertise or where the program funded by the gift has no relationship to its mission," Nye wrote in an e-mail message.

In order to find the right donors, Nye says, KSG examines the sources and interests of the donors as well as screens them with Harvard's deans and the University's Gift Policy Committee.

In addition to screening, KSG also knows its many of its donors--many of them are alumni.

The foreign gifts at KSG, he says, are mainly given toward fellowships granting international students financial aid. A total of 40 percent of students at KSG are from foreign countries.

But there are some University gifts that come unsolicited.

Nye says that he has had to turn gifts away because they were not within the parameters of KSG's academic plans.

But Rudenstine adds that sometimes the University can benefit from projects for which it hadn't originally planned.

"If somebody's priorities are in line with ours and they want to do more--that's great," Rudenstine says.

The Outer Limits

Harvard officials must always worry about the source of a gift--is some funding inappropriate, simply because of the nature of the government or organization that is donating it?

Director of the Center for International Development (CID) Jeffrey D. Sachs '76 says yes.

"Of course one wonders where the money came from, how it was earned, and what it represents," Sachs says.

Part of the pressure to keep track of this comes from student groups, officials say.

These groups "tend to keep the University a little more honest than it sometimes likes to be," one senior administration official said.

"There are a lot of people who would like to buy respectability by giving a gift to the University," the administrator adds. "Are we somehow bestowing legitimacy on a bad source by accepting it?"

Officials consider their decisions about gifts carefully, the administrator says.

"Frequently, one of the things that is considered is, can we defend this if it's on the front page of The Crimson or the [Boston] Globe or The New York Times?"