Harvard University, bracing for a legal battle against the government, is appealing to its wealthy alumni base for financial support. Once-major donors, however, are now grappling with their disappointment in the university’s failure to address antisemitism, or worrying about political risks of publicly supporting the institution. 

A group of Harvard’s top donors received an email from the school’s undergraduate dean soliciting financial gifts mere hours after Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, announced that he would not implement the reforms demanded by the administration in its quest to squash antisemitism and anti-conservative bias in higher education. The move placed in limbo grants and contracts from the federal government and valued at $9 billion over some years. 

“This is a critical time for Harvard, specifically, and for higher education, more generally,” Dean Hopi Hoekstra writes in an email that was reviewed by the Harvard Crimson. In the letter, Ms. Hoekstra even offered to facilitate one-on-one meetings with members of the donor group, known as the Harvard College Executive Fund Committee, to hear their “perspective on the road forward” for the university. 

Additionally, Mr. Garber himself has been reaching out to some of the school’s mega donors — including figures like former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, billionaire investor John Paulson, philanthropic financier David Rubenstein, and others — imploring them to cough up cash, sources told the Wall Street Journal and CNN. 

Convincing wealthy Harvard affiliates to donate, however, is likely to be an uphill battle. Some former megadonors, like hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and billionaire investor Len Blavatnik, pumped the brakes on their philanthropy last year over Harvard’s mishandling of campus antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack. During Harvard’s last fiscal year, giving fell by nearly 15 percent. Mr. Garber lamented at the time that the “new commitments” coming in were “disappointing compared to past years.” 

Additionally, a number of large donors disagree with Mr. Garber’s decision to go head-to-head with the administration. During a recent call with Mr. Garber and Harvard Corporation member Penny Pritzker, several major donors urged the university to settle its issues with the administration rather than continue a costly legal battle, sources told the Journal. 

On the flip side, the big-name donors who are supportive of Harvard’s decision are hesitant to sign big checks because they’re concerned about the optics of siding against the president, financial advisors told CNBC. Some are doling out cash, but are doing so under the radar, the advisors reported. 

In the meantime, Harvard has been receiving an outpouring of financial support from smaller donors. Just 24 hours after Mr. Garber publicly rejected the administration’s proposal, the university collected more than 3,800 online donations, totaling a sum upwards of $1 million, the Crimson reported. 

The influx of donations — which amounted to more than 40 times the amount received in a typical day in April — came from alumni, supporters, and faculty alike. The effort comes as the Trump administration has frozen $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts over Harvard’s refusal to implement a set of policy reforms. Harvard has since filed a federal lawsuit challenging the funding block. Mr. Trump followed up by threatening to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status. 

“I’m getting a huge, huge response from people, not only alumni and not only former students of mine — of whom there are thousands — but also from people who never had a thought about Harvard that was positive in their lives,” University Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe told the Crimson.

Mr. Tribe noted that several faculty members had expressed their willingness to take a salary pay cut to help fund research programs that are on the chopping block in light of the frozen federal grants. 

The surge in donations demonstrates a significant show of support for Mr. Garber’s act of defiance. Still, though, the surge in donations makes up only a fraction of the $2.2 billion in federal funding that the government revoked earlier this month. Harvard has warned that the cancelled funds will put to a halt critical research projects spanning medicine to technology to education. 

To cope with the financial uncertainty, Harvard appears to be eyeing the option of liquidating parts of its endowment. Harvard Management Company, which oversees the school’s $53 billion endowment,  is reportedly in talks to sell an estimated $1 billion of private equity fund stakes, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. 

However, the endowment, as large as it is, cannot serve as an all purpose piggy bank. Harvard’s ability to tap the pool of funds is massively limited by donor restrictions, legal challenges, and other investment-related obstacles. 
The Ivy League school also plans to issue $750 million in taxable bonds this month, bringing its total offering this year to $1.2 billion. Last month, Harvard managed to borrow a little over $434 million, falling short of its original goal by nearly $16 million, Ira Stoll reported in his substack, the Editors.