CASE Insights on Philanthropy Australia and New Zealand

Slides

Pdf Summary

The CASE Insights on Philanthropy presentation reviewed 2025 fundraising findings from 35 Australian and New Zealand institutions: 27 Go8 and eight non-Go8 institutions, including five from New Zealand.<br /><br />Key findings included more than $1.2 billion in new funds committed, including a single $100 million gift to a non-Go8 institution. Across all participants, there were 199 gifts of $1 million or more. Bequest activity also increased, with 699 bequest intentions recorded and 394 bequests realised, although a small number of institutions drove much of the rise. Donor numbers continued to decline: institutions reported 40,589 donors, including 17,443 alumni donors. Staffing trends differed by area, with 740 fundraising FTEs and a slight decrease in alumni-relations staffing to 341 FTEs.<br /><br />The presentation highlighted the importance of principal gifts, using ANU’s record fundraising year as an example of their impact. It also encouraged institutions to use survey data for peer benchmarking, strategic planning, leadership reporting, operational improvements, and learning from other institutions.<br /><br />CASE has expanded benchmarking tools, including comparison groups, downloadable slide shows, sorted lists, data exploration, and interactive summary reports. Since the 2025 survey, institution names have been displayed alongside their data, enabling more direct comparisons.<br /><br />The 2026 survey is scheduled to open in February 2027. Institutions can access the survey platform at insightsdata.case.org; the survey content is expected to remain largely unchanged, though validation checks may be reviewed.

Keywords

fundraising

philanthropy

bequests

donor decline

principal gifts

benchmarking

higher education

alumni donors

Australia

New Zealand