The U received more donations than any other university in the state last year and ranked 31st in the nation.
The U was given a total of $136,412,395 in 2005, according to a report by the Council for Aid to Education.
The report listed 1,004 American institutions' private donations received during 2005. Stanford University topped the list with $603,585,914 followed by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Harvard University.
In the report, the U ranked near universities such as Northwestern University and Princeton University and easily topped other Utah institutions. Brigham Young University followed the U with $78,507,049.
The nation overall had an increase in the amount of private donations given to universities. Donors gave a total of $25.6 billion to American institutions.
Fred Esplin, vice president for institutional advancement, said the U has done exceptionally well compared with other universities of its size for many years.
"There are several reasons for the high…donations," he said. "The primary reason is the spirit of philanthropy in the state of Utah."
Michael Mattsson, vice president for development, said Utah receives a large amount of donations because of a large middle class, which "developed early on the philosophy to make the most out of the university."
Esplin also complimented Mattsson and the office of development for successfully managing donor relations. He said they have perfected matching the needs of the university with the interests of the donors.
Students working in the office of development said the U receives a large amount of funding from alumni because the U strives to keep in contact with them.
"We try to keep a good relationship with our alumni and friends of each department, college and organization," said Gabi Cabal, an undeclared freshman.
"Many of the programs that benefit from donations are community-oriented," said Alyson Alegre, a sophomore in international studies. "So when people support the U, it's a win-win situation."
The CAE report has been done annually since 1957 to provide data on trends in private donations.
Ann Kaplan, the director of CAE's voluntary support groups, said CAE is a national nonprofit organization and touts itself as the nation's sole source of empirical data on private giving to education.
"Institutions participate at their own will," she said. "We had 1,005 institutions participate out of around 4,000."
