PHILANTHROPY IS growing rapidly.

Amoral and greedy – that’s how the University of Oxford has been left looking following revelations published in the Financial Times that it actively solicited Sackler family until very recently.   

What happens at Oxford matters because, along with Cambridge, it ranks as one of the world’s leading public universities. They set the bar for state-funded institutions around the world. The Sackler affair begs the question: how a sophisticated institution with a highly respected fundraising operation such as Oxford could have made such a misjudgement?

Latin American universities miss out when it comes to global philanthropy – that’s the findings of Why Not LatAm, a report published today by UniversityPhilanthropy.com. The review of leading philanthropic foundations – including the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, Silicon Valley Community Fund and Foundation for Open Society – reveals that Latin American universities rarely receive funding compared to institutions in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Over 1,700 grant giving charitable trusts and foundations were registered with the Charity Commission in 2020, providing an important indication of philanthropic intention during last year’s Covid-19 pandemic.

Dames Penelope Keith and Zandra Rhodes are among the philanthropists to have established a total of 1,731 foundations and trusts during the course of 2020 with the primary purpose of serving as a grant-making institution according to the New Grant-Makers 2020 review published by consultancy Cape Partnership and UniversityPhilanthropy.com.

The scale of Covid-19 emergency funding available for universities and higher education has been revealed in a study of the top pandemic relief funders.

According to the study undertaken by UniversityPhilanthropy.com, 15 philanthropists and foundations have pledged over $2.75bn in funding which appears geared to higher education in full or in part. The available funding breaks down broadly into four categories:

• Scientific and educational research that relates to Covid-19

• Support for distance learning

• General education purposes

• Economically and socially disadvantaged communities

20 March 2020, London ---- Giving to universities by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has declined over the past five years, with Africa experiencing the biggest drop in funding according to research published by UniversityPhilanthropy.com and the Cape Partnership, a London-based public affairs firm.

While funding to universities is steadily declining as a proportion of total giving, the number of Gates Foundation higher education beneficiaries has jumped 27% from 192 in 2014 to 243 in 2018, suggesting that the Foundation is distributing smaller sums today to a wider number of universities.