UNM FOUNDATION EARNS RANKING IN “THE PHILANTHROPY 400”

November 3, 2003
CORRECTED COPY

UNM FOUNDATION EARNS HIGHER RANKING IN “THE PHILANTHROPY 400”

The University of New Mexico Foundation/Development office is ranked at No. 350 in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking, “The Philanthropy 400,” released today.

“We jumped in the national rankings (from No. 379 to 350), so I think this is an indicator of a long-term emphasis of reaching out to the community and connecting it to the great things the University of New Mexico is doing,” said Leslie Elgood, director of Development and president of the UNM Foundation, Inc.

“It’s really exciting when you have this kind of quantum leap in a year when fundraising was down nationally. UNM was contraindicative of many nonprofit groups. Not only did we not lose ground like many other nonprofits did, we actually increased our donations from the previous year. It’s a legitimate comparison to other nonprofits.”

The Philanthropy 400 ranks the nation’s largest nonprofit groups by how much money they raise from private sources. The groups posted an aggregate decline of 0.4 percent in donations before calculating for inflation, which ran 1.58 percent in 2002. Over the course of the past five years, annual giving in the rankings had an average gain of 12 percent. Aggregate donations among the groups in this year’s survey totaled $46.9 billion, down from $47.5 billion last year.

Giving to the Philanthropy 400 charities accounted for approximately one-fifth of the $241 billion contributed to charities nationwide last year, according to estimates compiled by Giving USA, an annual report on charitable giving published by the American Association of Fundraising Counsel Trust for Philanthropy.

To be included in this year’s 400 list, organizations needed to raise more than $28.8 million for fiscal
year 2001-02 from private sources, including foundations, corporations and individuals.

UNM was one of 123 colleges and universities to receive recognition in The Philanthropy 400. Other entities included 39 international groups, 30 hospitals and medical centers, 29 United Ways, 27 community foundations, 26 religious groups, 19 health charities, 16 human-services groups, 15 Jewish federations, 13 environmental and animal-related groups, 11 youth groups, 10 museums and libraries, eight miscellaneous education groups, seven public broadcasting groups, six arts groups, six corporate-sponsored charitable funds and five public affairs groups.

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