Harvard President Garber Says He is Disappointed by 2023 Fundraising Numbers

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 said he was disappointed by some of the University’s fundraising numbers during an interview with The Crimson on Tuesday, a sign that Harvard officials are bracing for donations to dip after a year of campus turmoil.

Garber’s comments come ahead of the release of the University’s 2023 financial report later this month, which is expected to show that fundraising numbers fell as a result of alumni and donor backlash to Harvard’s initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,” Garber said.

“There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future,” Garber added. “I can’t get more specific than that right now.”

As the University grappled with months of donor fallout over its response to campus protests and an unprecedented leadership crisis, Garber had privately warned in March of a decline in new gifts. But he confirmed those suspicions publicly for the first time on Tuesday.

Harvard has faced public condemnation from even its most loyal supporters over its response to campus antisemitism, with several high-profile donors publicly suspending their donations to the University.

While total giving to the University is down from last fiscal year, according to four people familiar with the University’s fundraising data, the true extent of the damage will be revealed by the October report.

It will also reveal changes to the University’s endowment returns, budget operations, and revenue from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024.

Philanthropy, including current use gifts and endowment contributions, has historically been Harvard’s largest revenue source. Donations to the University’s endowment have supported financial aid, research initiatives, and professorships in addition to other operating expenses.

In 2023, donations made up nearly half of the University’s total revenue.

Amid the fallout, as Harvard remained under international scrutiny and facing a congressional investigation, the University’s development office shifted its strategy to “listening mode” in an attempt to win back outraged donors instead of aggressively soliciting more donations.

But as tensions have calmed over the summer and fall semester, the development office is tentatively planning to ramp up recruiting efforts in the spring, according to one person familiar with Harvard’s fundraising.

A University spokesperson declined to comment for this article.

As Harvard’s fundraiser-in-chief, Garber has also met with donors privately and traveled around the world to meet with alumni. In his first international trip as president, Garber visited the United Kingdom, which has frequently topped the list of Harvard’s sources of foreign funding.

Over the past six months, Garber has also visited Miami, Washington D.C., Seattle, and Los Angeles, participating in Q&As for alumni and meeting privately with donors.

“There are many alumni who have concerns about what is happening at Harvard — what has happened at Harvard — and remain very much committed to the University and care deeply about its future,” Garber said.

“They’ve been quite vocal,” he added.

There might, as Garber said, be some evidence of resilience in the University’s development office.

The Harvard College Fund, made up of current use gifts and endowment contributions for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, did not decline from its total in 2022, although the number of individual contributors has decreased, according to a person directly familiar with the 2023 data.

In the interview on Tuesday, Garber said that he hopes that new University policies and his own messages will encourage alumni and donors to support Harvard’s mission.

“I believe that they are reassured by the direction that the University is taking,” Garber said. “They are relieved, at least that so far, this academic year has been somewhat quieter.”

“There is more attention being paid to the mission of the University — to the research and to the teaching and to the learning that occurs here,” he added.

—Staff writer Emma H. Haidar can be reached at emma.haidar@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @HaidarEmma.

—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.