Harvard President Garber Says He’s Disappointed by Fundraising

Harvard University President Alan Garber said he’s disappointed by the school’s fundraising efforts in the wake of the campus turmoil over the past year.

The wealthiest US university is preparing to release an annual financial report that covers the period following the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. Harvard faced a barrage of criticism for the way it handled protests and incidents of antisemitism on campus, leading some alumni and donors to halt gifts.

“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,” Garber said in comments published Friday in the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. “There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future.”

Harvard’s $50.7 billion endowment is powered by massive fundraising efforts and a once-envied investing performance. The Ivy League school has raised at least $1 billion annually over the past decade, often the most in all of higher education. The upcoming financial report covers the year through June, and many peers with large endowments have turned in performances in the single digits.

Read more: Harvard Endowment Paid Out a Fortune and Lost Its Investing Edge

Harvard has been in crisis since the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Its former president, Claudine Gay, was slow to condemn comments by student groups that blamed the attack solely on the Jewish state. Among alumni who paused gifts to Harvard are billionaires Ken Griffin and Len Blavatnik.

Gay resigned in January after her much-criticized testimony before Congress led to widespread calls for her ouster. Garber was appointed interim president and then assumed the post permanently in August. He’s been trying to repair the damage with donors and alumni and enlisting new policies, including not taking positions that don’t directly affect the university’s core mission.

Campuses have been quieter compared with last spring, when students at Harvard and across the US created encampments, some broken up by police. Earlier this week at Harvard, windows of an administration building were smashed and the statue of John Harvard was covered in red paint.

But even before the war in the Middle East, Harvard’s year-to-year fundraising numbers had slipped. Cash gifts to the university for the year ended in June 2023 fell 3% to $1.38 billion, according to last year’s financial report.

Another major source of Harvard’s revenue, its endowment, has also been lagging behind other elite schools. Its 10-year annualized returns were the second lowest among its eight Ivy League peers.

Garber told the Crimson that he hopes the school’s new policies and his own communications will help.

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