The Comparative Study On Fundraising Mechanism Of Chinese And American Public Universities

University plays vital roles to a country,as it nurtures top talents and creates the future of the society.China has also set the goal of “strengthening the construction of world-class universities and disciplines”.Looking at countries all over the world,higher education has become quite popularized,leading to the increasing costs for higher education.The shortage of educational appropriations has restrained the development of universities,especially for public universities.Relying on government appropriations is far enough for supporting the increasing needs of the development of public universities,the solution is to attract external resources to diversify the educational funds.In recent years,Chinese public universities have made great progress in fundraising,but the gap is still huge compared to American public universities.This thesis targets Chinese and American public universities,featuring their fundraising mechanism,which includes fundraising environment,fundraising channels,fundraising team,and fundraising strategy.Shanghai Jiao Tong University,one of the top universities in China,and University of Michigan,ranking top five among American public universities,share similarities in education level,social resources.Here take the two representative universities as study cases,to summarize their current status,characteristics,and explanations of fundraising mechanism.By comparing each aspect of their fundraising mechanism,the result shows that the fundraising mechanism of Chinese public universities,taking Shanghai Jiao Tong University as the example,have been greatly improved in recent years,but deficiencies are still shown in the following aspects: the charitable atmosphere is not favorable enough,the fundraising resources are underdeveloped,the fundraising team is not so professional,and the fundraising strategy is not systematically planned.The reasons are mostly due to the influences of historical process,the constraints of policy and system,and the limitations of the university itself.By contrast,University of Michigan has well developed its mechanism out of American economic,political and social background,as well as the fundraising practice of the University itself.The comparison shows that the formation and development of fundraising mechanism of Chinese and American universities are quite different from each other.The model of American public universities is definitely worth to be learned and borrowed for Chinese public universities,but not copy.The key point is how to establish the fundraising mechanism based on China’s national conditions,and set up a model that is best suitable for Chinese public universities.This thesis brings up practical suggestions,providing experiences and references for Chinese public universities to improve their fundraising mechanism.