Funding TO UNIVERSITIES by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Introduction
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a community-based donor advisory fund headquartered in Mountain View, California. Established in 2007, it has become the tech titans’ charity of choice and is now one of the world’s most well-funded foundations. According to Forbes, SVCF donors include Mark Zuckerberg, Jan Koum, Jeff Skoll, Jack Dorsey, Sergey Brin and Larry Ellison.
The SVCF is an important barometer of giving because it reflects the choices of a wide group of Silicon Valley-based philanthropists. It also provides insight into emerging philanthropic trends, including the consequences of the shift in the balance of philanthropic wealth in the United States from the East coast to the West coast. Its activities and the causes it supports appear to reflect a growing appetite among the next generation of philanthropists for taking greater risk in their funding choices.
The SVCF has also emerged as a major donor of universities around the world giving nearly $100m to non-US universities between 2015-20.
According to our analysis of its university funding over the past 6 years (2015-20):
SVCF donors have disbursed $874m to 566 universities in 65 countries. The diversity of university funding appears to be the broadest of any large US foundation.
As the Foundation has grown, so too has university funding. It boomed from $62.9m shared between 248 universities in 2015 to $206m shared between 287 universities in 2019.
There is also evidence of increased internationalisation of university funding by the SVCF. In 2015, $3.4m (5%) in funding was shared between 50 non-US universities; by 2019 $26.9m (15%) in funding was shared between 71 non-US universities.
The US is the biggest beneficiary of SVCF funding. $783m (89%) of funding was awarded to 365 US institutions.
European institutions were the second biggest beneficiaries of funding. 92 European institutions in 19 countries received $53.8m.
Asian universities were the third biggest beneficiaries of SVCF university funding, receiving $18.2m shared between 39 institutions in 15 countries.
We also now have an early and important indication into university philanthropy in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
There was a 59% reduction in university funding in 2020, dropping from $206m to $122m. It still represents a 95% increase on university funding in 2015, demonstrating the relative strength of West Coast philanthropy when the pandemic hit.
Overall funding to international universities dropped by 43% with Asian universities most affected. However, funding to European universities in 2020 increased by 20%.
British, Israeli and Japanese universities are the biggest international beneficiaries of SVCF giving. The top 5 US beneficiaries were:
Santa Clara University - $96.9m
Stanford University - $87.4m
Harvard University - $40.0m
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - $34.4m
University of California, Berkeley - $32.1m
The top 5 non-US beneficiaries were:
Imperial College, UK - $17.6m
University College, London - $6.0m
Haifa University, Israel - $5.7m
Oxford University, UK - $5.7m
Peking University, China - $5.0m
Courtesy of Rami Al-Zayat
Courtesy of Paul Calescu