Philanthropy has come of age in Australian higher education as universities harness their scale and focus on real-world outcomes to overcome the handicap of youth.

Administrators at the research-intensive Group of Eight universities say that altruism can help to fill the gap left by the predicted downturn of the country¡¯s A$35?billion (?19?billion) international education industry, with fundraising hauls of A$100?million a year ¨C unthinkable a few years ago ¨C becoming routine.

The country¡¯s two oldest institutions, the universities of Melbourne and Sydney, initiated the trend in 2013 with their ¡°Believe¡± and ¡°Inspired¡± campaigns, chasing targets of A$500?million and A$600?million, respectively. Both unveiled the initiatives when they had already half-achieved their goals, like buskers who inspire confidence by partially filling guitar cases with their own coins.

Within a few years, both universities had met their targets?early and set revised goals of A$1?billion, with each claiming that it was rolling out the biggest philanthropic campaign in Australian history. Sydney announced that it had reached the milestone on 30?January.

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In 2017, the University of Western Australia revealed that it had achieved the A$400?million target of its ¡°New Century¡± campaign seven months ahead of deadline, with its fundraising bookended by two A$65?million donations from local mining magnate Andrew Forrest.

The same year, the University of Queensland announced its A$500?million ¡°Not If, When¡± campaign, adding that the target had already been half-achieved since a 2013 ¡°internal launch¡±. UNSW Sydney is expected to follow suit within the next 18 months, setting a higher figure.

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The University of Adelaide declared that it would seek increased philanthropic support as part of a new strategic plan unveiled on 4?March. The Australian National University said that planning was ¡°well under way¡± for a major fundraising campaign?after the February recruitment of Barbara Miles, long-serving head of alumni engagement at the University of British Columbia.

In 2013, ANU pocketed a A$50?million donation from Australian entrepreneur Graham Tuckwell ¨C then the largest individual gift ever to an Australian university ¨C and it knocked back a potential A$60?million windfall last year when it rejected an agreement with the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation.

Non-Go8 universities have also benefited from philanthropic largesse. In 2009, Queensland University of Technology received A$25?million from?the US?philanthropist Chuck Feeney ¨C part of more than A$500?million the duty-free shopping magnate reportedly doled out to Australian universities over many years.

Last year, La?Trobe University received A$30?million from an anonymous donor ¨C helping the Victorian institution to reach a A$50?million campaign goal and to set a new A$100?million target ¨C with Southern Cross and Western Sydney universities obtaining individual donations of A$10?million each.

In October, Monash University launched its campaign ¨C dubbed ¡°Change it. For good¡± ¨C having already amassed more than A$300?million of the A$500?million it aspires to raise by the end of 2022. It was also about halfway to achieving its targets of 50,000 donors and 200 new bequests.

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Last year alone, Monash raised a record A$95?million ¨C more than two and a half times the A$37?million that it netted in 2013, when chief philanthropy officer Marcus Ward joined Monash from a similar position at Queen¡¯s University Belfast.

The 2018 contributions came from just over 6,000 donors, up from about 1,000 five years earlier. Monash collected A$46?million in eight ¡°principal gifts¡± worth A$1?million or more each, up from three large donations totalling A$4?million in 2013. The number of individual benefactors giving at least A$100,000 had more than doubled to almost?50.

Mr Ward said that the universities of Sydney and Melbourne had unleashed a ¡°sea change¡± in Australian philanthropy. ¡°When they went public in 2013, no one anticipated that they would be not only hitting the A$100?million mark but hitting it regularly,¡± he said.

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While universities?such as Oxford and Harvard boast enormous endowments amassed over centuries, Mr Ward said that Australian universities had the attributes to ¡°accelerate ahead¡± ¨C including hundreds of thousands of alumni, many of them in Asia. ¡°We¡¯re able to go to those areas where you¡¯re seeing significant increases in wealth, but also the changing demands of society in which philanthropy will need to play a part,¡± he explained.

Mr Ward said that although?there?had been?a ¡°backlash¡± against the huge central endowments of North American universities, Australian universities had avoided this by tying donations to specific research outcomes.

¡°Gone are the days when the vice-chancellor said, ¡®These are my top three priorities¡¯ ¨C where the philanthropist handed over the cheque and said, ¡®Do with this as you see fit.¡¯¡±

Mr Ward knew of no British or Irish universities that, like Australian institutions, set targets for donors as well as donations. ¡°We value the act of giving as much as the value of the gift,¡± he said.

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john.ross@timeshighereducation.com