Financially, Things Should be Looking Up for UGA

At a little more than $126 million, the University of Georgia had its best fund-raising year in history in FY2011, President Michael Adams said Thursday.

One of the gifts was in the tens of millions, but Adams wouldn’t say who had given it, preferring to let VP for External Affairs Tom Landrum do so. The Athletic Association got $28 million for its ticket priority program

While the large figure does cheer him, there are other trends that Adams prefers to focus on when it comes to fund-raising.

One is that for the last six years, the baseline  for giving has been in the $90 to $100 million range. And another is that there were 55,000 donors to the university last year. That development speaks to the President about the loyalty of younger donors who may be giving smaller amounts.

He said that fund-raising is more successful when there are specific objectives, such as the new special collections library, which will be dedicated on Friday, and the new veterinary medical hospital.

UGA administrative officials are hoping Georgia Legislators will fully fund the university based on the funding formula, which is computed using credit hours. Last year and the prior two years, the administration "leaned on the faculty to produce more credit hours," but the formula was fully funded. For UGA, that meant that $15 million officials were expecting didn't arrive.

"Absorbing that was exceedingly difficult," Adams said. "Based on what the governor has said, we will be building back starting in 2013."