IU receives most donations in 2010

IU ranks first among public universities in the amount of voluntary financial support it received in 2010.

All eight IU campuses received a total of $342.8 million from the IU Foundation, Riley Children’s Foundation and from non-governmental research grants. Together, these gifts resulted in a 38.5 percent donation increase from 2009.

IU also ranked first in the Big Ten and 10th among all colleges and universities.

“(President Michael) McRobbie is always quick to talk about the generosity of donors and alumni because we are unusually fortunate to have a fairly large base of people who want to be part of Indiana University and contribute to our growth,” IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said. 

The money that was received will go toward helping students, faculty and research support at IU, said Gene Tempel, president of the IU Foundation.

“Almost every dollar goes to something like that,” Tempel said.

A $15 million donation was given in an estate from William R. Fry to the Kelley School of Business for undergraduate scholarships.

“That scholarship has a special emphasis on students from under-represented populations,” Tempel said. “It really is a big boom to the undergraduate students in the business school.”

$60 million was also given to IU from the Lilly Endowment, which went to the IU School of Medicine to support young doctors who want to move their ideas from the lab to clinic use.

“The school of medicine will be hiring people who fit that category,” Tempel said. “$18 million of that money will go into an endowment to support that program over the long term.”

The higher the voluntary support number, the better IU is doing as a university, MacIntyre said.

“When the University does things well it attracts the interest and support of people looking to make a philanthropic contribution,” MacIntyre said.