IU 1st in Big Ten in private financial support

The IU Foundation announced Monday that IU ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten and 13th in the nation when it comes to garnering financial support from the private sector.\nIn the 2004 fiscal year, the IU Foundation collected $248.5 million in gifts and grants, placing it in the top percentile of 971 institutions of higher learning that receive support from the private sector, according to a survey by the Council for Aid to Education this year.\nOf that $248.5 million, $136.3 million came from private gifts and $112.2 from nongovernmental research grants, according to statement released Monday.\nMoney from "private sector support" is used in a variety of ways on the IU campus, including student retention. Amanda Burnham, executive director of development and alumni relations for the School of Journalism, said private sector support accounts for roughly 20 percent of the school's budget for fiscal year 2005-06. Burnham said Sunday at the journalism school's annual scholarship ceremony that the school will award more than $200,000 in scholarships to IU journalism students. She said the scholarship money is available only because of financial support from private donors -- these funds are not built into the school's budget. \nMuch of those "extra-bugetary funds" are managed by the IU Foundation. The Foundation is an University-affiliated entity that functions similarly to a bank. The Foundation collects donations, oversees the money, monitors investments designed to benefit the fiscal health of IU and acts as a liaison between the University and potential donors. Foundation President Curt Simic echoes Burnham's emphasis on scholarships stemming from private support. He said students going through college today do it two ways:\n"They are either going into debt or working their way through. The scholarships ameliorate that. I worry so much because so many of our students are growing deeper in debt, and that makes education less accessible," Simic said. "These scholarships make education more accessible." \nThe IU Foundation also runs an endowment designed to ensure the fiscal stability of IU. According to the Foundation, in the 2004 fiscal year, the IU Endowment grew past the $1 billion mark. According to Simic, during fiscal year 2003 and 2004, there was at least a 20-percent growth rate for the endowment. Simic highlighted these statistics to demonstrate that IU manages its funds well and to show investors that if they make a gift to IU, it won't be wasted.\n"We won't blow it, and we'll grow it," Simic said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Brandon S Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.