Harvard attracts new donors as funding fight with Trump administration intensifies
Boston, MA, April 22, 2025 /Boston Globe/ — Anita Taylor, an elementary school teacher in Concord, N.H., did not attend Harvard University. And she rarely makes charitable donations.
Yet last week, after learning that the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university had risked billions by rejecting a series of demands from the Trump administration, Taylor decided to open up her pocketbook.
She knew her check wouldn’t make a dent in the $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard frozen by the administration. But she still wanted to send a message – one more forceful than $20 or even $100 would convey.
She settled on giving Harvard $1,500.
“They took a stand, and I wanted to support that in a stronger way than I would ever do,” Taylor, 42, said. “I loved what the president of Harvard [said], how they explained what they were standing for. And I thought, ‘Oh, thank goodness. Maybe this will build a movement.’”
She isn’t alone. In the days since the Trump administration put a hold on Harvard’s funding and said it would seek to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status – stakes that were further raised Monday when Harvard sued the Trump administration – donations have poured in. While the school’s biggest donors are largely remaining tight-lipped about their giving plans, university officials have reportedly been courting major funders amid a groundswell of smaller gifts.
In recent days, officials updated Harvard’s website to focus on the school’s research initiatives, whose benefits extend well beyond the student body. Suzanne Hilser-Wiles, a managing director at Huron Consulting Group who helps institutions of higher education with fundraising, said it is critical for universities like Harvard to stress their broader impacts – particularly for the wealthiest donors, who can move “the needle more quickly.”
The smaller gifts given as a form of public protest have a different value.
“Having a really engaged constituency and having them be part of the support and the messaging … that’s incredibly impactful,” Hilser-Wiles said.
Many Harvard alumni have felt moved to give to their alma mater for the first time.
“I always thought, ‘Oh, Harvard has so much money, they don’t need me to give them money,’” said Linda Haverty Rugg, who earned a PhD in comparative literature from the school in 1989 and went on to spend five years as associate vice chancellor for research at the University of California at Berkeley.
Rugg was one of few people from her Nebraska hometown to leave the Midwest for school. Thanks to Harvard’s endowment, which paid for fellowships and teaching opportunities, she graduated debt-free. Eight of her relatives and her junior-high science teacher flew to Boston for the graduation ceremony. It bothers her when Harvard is characterized as elitist because she knows many graduates with stories like hers.
Rugg views the $100 donation she made last week as a symbolic gesture, but hopes it will inspire others to do the same.
“You want to send a message to Harvard: ‘Don’t give up,’” she said. “‘The people that you sent out into the world, we are here, you know, and we are ready to come and try to help you.”
Below a Facebook post about her donation, a handful of Rugg’s acquaintances – alumni and not – said they would also donate to Harvard for the first time. Roberto Diaz, who received his PhD in Spanish from the school in 1991, told the Globe he earmarked his $100 for two purposes: a Harvard research center near Florence where he and his late husband, also a Harvard graduate, visited while on vacation, and a bucket titled “Presidential Priorities.”
Diaz said he has been impressed with the two lawyers retained by Harvard President Alan Garber. “So if they want to take my little money and give it to the lawyers, I would be happy,” he said.
Another new donor, a federal contractor whose business has been hurt by the Trump administration’s cuts, said the president’s interest in Harvard’s academic policies is “ironic” considering his work to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
“He did away with that, but now he wants to dictate how education is run in the country,” said the worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to his position. “I honestly am totally against that.”
While Harvard’s fundraising surged in 2021 and 2022, it has dipped since, and the federal funding freeze marks the latest in a string of financial hits. According to Harvard’s 2024 financial report, total gifts have decreased by nearly a quarter-billion dollars since 2022, with a 15% drop from 2023 to 2024.
In early 2024, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, a Harvard grad who’s donated more than $500 million dollars to the school, said he was pausing his support amid concerns over Harvard’s handling of antisemitism on campus.
Griffin declined to comment when asked by the Globe if his position has changed in light of the federal funding freeze.
The Wall Street Journal reported that university officials have been connecting with other major donors in recent days, including businessman and politician Michael Bloomberg, investor David Rubenstein and hedge fund manager John Paulson. The three all declined to comment to the Globe.
Della Heiman, a Miami-based Jewish entrepreneur who graduated from Harvard Business School in 2014, said she admired the university’s fortitude as they resisted Trump’s demands, which the president attributed to the school’s mishandling of antisemitism during protests and in classrooms. The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, Heiman has been critical of the university’s response to antisemitism, but she said she believes the institution has made meaningful strides in protecting Jewish students.
She views the Trump administration’s financial pressure as a power grab that has “nothing to do with the welfare of the Jewish people” and threatens the independence of a place where students can debate without feeling unsafe.
”My hope is that what comes out of this for all universities is being able to foster nuanced conversation, tolerance, openness, and curiosity, because I fear that we are losing all those concepts with this society, and it’s quite terrifying,” she said
The Trump administration’s tactics are being felt far beyond Boston.
Laura McGarry, managing principal at Graham-Pelton, a nonprofit consulting firm, said higher education clients whose funding has yet to be impacted are seeking guidance on how to engage with donors. Her main advice: stay the course and keep your mission at the forefront.
Engaging with donors, even those giving small amounts, can build a more robust base for the future.
“We’ve captured the attention and the inspiration of these people,” she said. “How do you grow that and sustain that?”
SOURCE Boston Globe