Colleges Will See a Decline in Megagifts, Experts Predict

San Francisco, July 13, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — The golden age for philanthropy—and the United States—may be over.

That was the sobering message delivered late last week at the annual conference for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Speakers at the fund-raising conference, including Robert B. Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor, predicted that the economic recovery, when it happens, is likely to be weak, and that the number of megagifts to higher education will probably fall and the pace of such giving slow.