Each year, the AAMC conducts a national benchmarking survey to measure the impact, costs, and staffing of fundraising at its member medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals. These survey data are used by medical school deans, teaching hospital and health system CEOs, chief development officers, and other academic medicine leaders to assess the effectiveness of their institutional development programs. Through the survey’s annual compilation and analysis of data, medical schools, academic health systems, and teaching hospitals can also identify philanthropic trends useful for development planning and management.
Survey Results
Key Results
Highlighted here are key results from the 2023 survey of 127 institutions (reporting 2022-2023 gift year data) as of Aug. 20, 2024.
Total private support
- $94.1 million: mean total private support per institution in 2022-2023
- 7.1% increase from $87.9 million per institution in 2021-2022
- $123.1 million: mean total private support per institution for private institutions in 2022-2023
- $63.2 million: mean total private support per institution for public institutions in 2022-2023
- $45.5 million: mean total private support per institution for medical schools in 2022-2023
- $144.7 million: mean total private support per institution for teaching hospitals in 2022-2023
- $114.9 million: mean total private support per institution for joint programs in 2022-2023
Fundraising costs and return on investment
- $10.8 million: mean fundraising cost per institution in 2022-2023
- 27.2% increase from 2021-2022
- $0.14: median fundraising cost per dollar raised in 2022-2023
- $7.28: median return on investment per dollar invested in 2022-2023
Gifts of $1 million+
- 1,988 total reported gifts and pledges over $1 million, in 2022-2023 and 354 of the gifts and pledges reported in 2022-2023 were greater than $5 million
Institutional giving
- $63.5 million: mean total private support from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023
- 10.3% increase in mean total private support from institutions and organizations per institution from 2021-2022
- $76.7 million: mean total support from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023 for private institutions
- $49.6 million: mean total support from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023 for public institutions
- $101,360: average gift from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023
- 8.3% decrease in average gift from institutions and organizations per institution from 2021-2022
- $101,977: mean gift size from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023 for private institutions
- $100,690: mean gift size from institutions and organizations per institution in 2022-2023 for public institutions