Campus News

Elite University ‘Giving Day’ Donations Plummet Following Rise Of Anti-Israel Protests

(Screen Capture/ABC News)

Columbia University saw a decline in donations during their annual “Giving Day” following months of anti-Israel protests.

The Ivy League university received $21.4 million during Tuesday’s campaign compared to the approximate $30 million in 2022, a 28.8% decline, according to the Columbia Spectator. Columbia canceled the event in 2023 after Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which triggered outbreaks of disruptive protests across the campus.

University spokesperson Ben Chang said in 2023 that “this is not the appropriate time to move forward” with the event.

The total number of gifts to the university plummeted by 27.9% from 2022 to 2024, dropping from 19,229 to 13,870, the student newspaper reported. The number marks the lowest since 2015, and it is also the first time that yearly donations have declined since Giving Day was established in 2012.

Protests on Columbia’s campus resulted in large swathes of arrest and the cancellation of its main graduation ceremony. Protesters also occupied a campus building, reportedly holding a staff member hostage.

The majority of campus protesters have faced little to no discipline.

Several universities faced similar donor crises in response to antisemitic events on campus. The Wexner Foundation wrote in an October 2023 letter that it was “stunned and sickened” by the elite university’s failure to take a stand against antisemitism.

The University of Pennsylvania lost a $100 million donation following then-president Liz Magill refusing to state during a congressional hearing whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated university policy. Both Magill and Harvard University president Claudine Gay resigned after the hearing.

Columbia University did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.