{"id":3480,"date":"2023-10-20T03:00:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T03:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/the-ivy-league-donor-backlash-is-a-pr-nightmare-and-thats-the-point\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T03:00:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T03:00:26","slug":"the-ivy-league-donor-backlash-is-a-pr-nightmare-and-thats-the-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=3480","title":{"rendered":"The Ivy League donor backlash is a PR nightmare, and that\u2019s the point"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n A version of this story appeared in CNN Business\u2019 Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free, <\/em>here<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Yesterday, we talked about some of the big-name, deep-pocketed businessmen who were, to say the least, disappointed with their alma maters\u2019 responses to what they considered antisemitic behavior at Harvard and UPenn.\n <\/p>\n

\n The donors\u2019 backlash has become a serious PR headache for the schools. Which is exactly the point.\n <\/p>\n

\n Donors understand as well as anyone that pulling their funds won\u2019t inflict significant financial damage on Ivy League institutions, which boast huge endowments, my colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn reports. The point of donating \u2014 apart from showing support for your school out of the goodness of your heart \u2014 is to wield soft power within influential institutions that are shaping the minds of future generations. And to get a tax write-off, of course.\n <\/p>\n

\n The impact of the angry donors\u2019 pullback is less likely to be immediate, according to Lee Gardner, a writer at the Chronicle of Higher Education who covers higher education finance. But it could, he said, take a bite out of gifts or donations that might have been in the works down the road.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIvy League universities have the relative luxury of being enormously wealthy,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cThey have a lot more financial insulation from the impact of some donors getting upset.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The donor backlash reflects the way colleges have to run themselves much like a corporation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Like any big business, a university is beholden to donors (who act like shareholders, wielding their money as a cudgel) and to students (their primary consumers, who could eventually become donors themselves). Not to mention all manner of other stakeholders, such as professors, parents, and staff.\n <\/p>\n

\n While losing one or two donors isn\u2019t a fatal blow for elite colleges, they still need donors to help keep the lights on. Even well-funded schools like UPenn or Harvard would have a big hole to fill if all donors suddenly cut ties.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPhilanthropic funding of US colleges and universities is at a high point,\u201d researchers at Indiana University\u2019s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy found in a 2020 study. \u201cPublic and private fundraising powerhouses are fielding campaigns with billion-dollar goals at once-impossible levels \u2014 and they are achieving their goals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Philanthropy is the single largest contributor to revenue at Harvard, accounting for 45% of the university\u2019s $5.8 billion in income last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n In fact, the revenue generated each year from Harvard\u2019s education and research endeavors is \u201cnot sufficient to fund operations,\u201d according to the school. It relies on philanthropy to fill in the gap.\n <\/p>\n

\n At UPenn, philanthropic gifts accounted for 1.5% of the university\u2019s $14 billion in revenue last year. The majority of UPenn\u2019s income came from its hospital network.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard and US Treasury Secretary, has criticized the \u201cmorally unconscionable\u201d student statement about Israel that prompted the donor revolt.\n <\/p>\n

\n But he said that financial threats from donors were not the right solution to influencing universities\u2019 positions on these issues.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI believe the adjustments from universities should come from their conscience and conversations within their communities, not in response to financial pressure,\u201d Summers told CNN Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n One day, I imagine telling stories to my grandchildren, gathered in our space pod, about the old days on Earth. How we used to pay for things by writing numbers on a little pieces of paper we carried in a book. How we drove on \u201croads\u201d and yelled about \u201ctraffic.\u201d And how Netflix cost just $8 a month.\n <\/p>\n

\n That last one already feels like ancient history, tbh.\n <\/p>\n

\n On Wednesday, Netflix announced yet another price increase for some customers, jacking up the cost of its premium ad-free plan in the United States by $3 a month, to $22.99. (Its basic plan will rise to $12 in the United States. All other plans, including its ad-supported $7 tier, will stay the same.)\n <\/p>\n

\n These days, TikTok gets all the attention \u2014 the app that\u2019s got teens fixated on their phones so that China can feed them communist propaganda, or whatever.\n <\/p>\n

\n Snapchat, the buzziest app of the 20-teens, has in recent years been overshadowed in all the TikTok pearl-clutching, Twitter Musk-ing and Meta Threading. But all the while, Snapchat has quietly become the world\u2019s fastest-growing social platform, my colleague Clare Duffy writes.\n <\/p>\n

\n See here: As of the end of June, Snapchat reported 397 million daily active users \u2014 more than X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.\n <\/p>\n

\n Critically, last month it reached 5 million paying subscribers for its Snapchat+ service, already halfway to the 10 million goal just a year after launching.\n <\/p>\n

\n At 5 million subscribers paying $3.99 a month, Snapchat+ is set to earn around $239 million in annual revenue.\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, revenue growth hasn\u2019t kept pace with those user gains. In the first six months of this year, Snap, the app\u2019s parent company, saw revenue fall more than 5% compared with the year-ago period, and it posted an operating loss of $769 million. The company\u2019s shares are down more than 11% since this time last year.\n <\/p>\n

\n When Snap reports quarterly earnings next week, it\u2019s expected to post its third consecutive revenue decline.\n <\/p>\n

\n Why it matters<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n

\n Social media is kind of a hot mess right now, littered with misinformation and desperately jockeying to feed us content from people we\u2019ve never heard of. The utility of Twitter has, for many, vanished; the joy of Instagram is dulled by frequent ads that seem suspiciously relevant, like your phone is listening to your real-life conversations; Facebook is \u2026 I have no idea what Facebook is now, honestly.\n <\/p>\n

\n Snapchat, Clare writes, has gone a different route, focusing on connecting users with their real-life social circle.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s not immune from the mess, of course.\n <\/p>\n

\n Snapchat, like other platforms, is trying to revamp its advertising business to cope with changes to Apple\u2019s app tracking policies. And the company is pouring money into artificial intelligence and augmented reality.\n <\/p>\n

\n Still, analysts are intrigued by Snap\u2019s user growth, especially for a company that\u2019s been around for over a decade.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIn my view, there\u2019s significant value for a company that\u2019s growing its installed base at this level,\u201d said Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research. \u201cAt the end of the day, when you think about advertisers, they want to go where the eyes are.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Enjoying Nightcap? <\/em>Sign up<\/em> and you\u2019ll get all of this, plus some other funny stuff we liked on the internet, in your inbox every night. (OK, most nights \u2014 we believe in a four-day work week around here.)<\/em>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A version of this story appeared in CNN Business\u2019 Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free, here….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Ivy League donor backlash is a PR nightmare, and that\u2019s the point | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A version of this story appeared in CNN Business\u2019 Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free, here. 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