Harvard faces $150 million drop in donations amid antisemitism mismanagement concerns

Harvard University, one of America’s leading academic institutions, has experienced a $150 million decrease in donations during the 2024 fiscal year, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported this week.

The 14% decline in donations comes on the heels of widespread criticism that Harvard's leadership has failed to address the dramatic rise in antisemitism on campus since the Oct. 7 attack last year.

Donations to Harvard’s endowment in 2024 fell by a whopping $193 million, about one-third reduction compared to 2023. At the same time, donations for "immediate-use" increased by $42 million.

Harvard’s interim President Alan Garber admitted that the university has been facing a decrease in funding while expressing optimism for the year ahead.

“Some of the new commitments have been disappointing compared to past years,” Garber stated. “There are also some indications that we will see improvements in the future.”

Campus protests by anti-Israel, anti-Jewish, and even anti-American student activists at Harvard, in Boston, Massachusetts, and other leading universities across the United States, have led to growing tensions and divisions across the country. Billionaires like Ken Griffin and Len Blavatnik, former significant donors, cut their relations with Harvard University due to its failure to address the growing extremism on campus.

Blavatnik’s decision to suspend funding came mere weeks after Harvard’s former president, Claudine Gay, refused to condemn the displays of antisemitism on campus. Instead, Gay argued that it depended on the “context” of the statement.

The following month, the mega-donor Griffin blasted Harvard for its failure to maintain “Western values” amid the dramatic rise of Jew hatred.

“Until Harvard makes it very clear that they’re going to resume their role as [educators of] young American men and women to be leaders, to be problem solvers, to take on difficult issues, I am not interested in supporting the institution,” the billionaire told the news outlet CNBC.

In January 2024, Gay resigned from her position as Harvard's president.

A Network Contagion Research Institute report revealed a strong connection between the rise of antisemitic incidents and large undisclosed donations from authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, such as Qatar, which maintains close ties with the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

"A massive influx of foreign, concealed donations to American institutions of higher learning, much of it from authoritarian regimes with notable support from Middle Eastern sources, reflects or supports heightened levels of intolerance towards Jews, open inquiry, and free expression," the report stated.

Qatar and other Middle Eastern regimes have actively tried to increase their influence on U.S. campuses by donating primarily to top academic institutions across the U.S., such as Harvard and Columbia University in New York City.

Despite the current setback in donations, Harvard remains financially stable. Its endowment generated a 9.6% return during the fiscal year 2024, which pushed back holdings to $53.2 billion – an amount larger than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many nations.

However, Ritu Kalra, Harvard’s chief financial officer, warned that "the level of giving and the level of returns may be difficult to sustain," which could undermine the university’s long-term viability.