What are foundation giving programs supporting in higher education?

Every foundation is unique, yet some generalizations can be made about giving patterns. The overall trend in giving to higher education is to support projects that will benefit more than just the home institution, and not to support programs that should be funded by an institution internally. Foundations often want to know that an institution will support a proposed project before committing additional resources to it. Many foundations are looking for projects that have one or more of the following characteristics: multi-institutional collaboration; interdisciplinary programs; college-community partnerships, often in conjunction with local or regional K-12 schools; creative and economical uses of technology for teaching and learning; service to underserved populations, historically black colleges and universities, Native American tribal colleges, and community colleges; higher education for non-traditional students. Many foundations no longer support building projects or endowments (e.g., scholarship funds). For more information, consult the Foundation Center (http://fdncenter.org), Philanthropy Journal (http://www.philanthropy-journal.org), and Philanthropy News Digest (http://fdncenter.org/pnd/current/index.html).