OLR Report 2014-R-0214 answers the questions: How does the relationship between UConn and the UConn foundation compare with other New England flagship public universities and their foundations? Specifically:
- are these foundations exempt from their respective states’ Freedom of Information (FOI) laws,
- are they the primary fundraising entities for their respective universities, and
- how much money have they raised for their universities over the past five years?
Additionally, how much did in-state tuition and fees increase in the past five years at these universities?
To answer these questions, OLR examined the foundations of the six New England flagship public universities:
- UConn Foundation,
- University of Maine (UMaine) Foundation,
- University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst Foundation,
- University of New Hampshire (UNH) Foundation,
- University of Rhode Island (URI) Foundation, and
- University of Vermont (UVM) Foundation.
Connecticut is the only New England state that explicitly exempts public university foundations from state FOI laws. The other New England states’ FOI laws generally do not address university foundations specifically. Most of these foundations serve as their related institution’s primary fundraising arm, with the UConn Foundation having the highest fundraising revenues of these foundations.
Concerning tuition, UConn had the (1) third-lowest in-state tuition and fee increase among these universities for the academic years 2008-09 through 2013-14 and (2) highest percentage increase from 2012-13 to 2013-14.
