Can donors fill the major budget holes that US colleges face under Trump?

Schools weigh drastic steps and how much gaps can be plugged by private philanthropy

- Alan Blinder and Vimal Patel

WASHINGTON - The T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University has not been disguising its plight.

"With Harvard's federal funding frozen, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programmes," the school's donation website says. "Your ongoing engagement is vital to keeping our mission on track."

The Trump administration's decision to block billions of dollars in research money to certain colleges is forcing school administrators and their fund-raising teams to scrounge for cash.

As schools across the US contemplate layoffs, lab shutdowns and other drastic steps, they are weighing how much the gaps can be plugged by private philanthropy - and how pointedly political their pleas for donations ought to be.

A handful are wagering that the financial rewards of trying to leverage donors' concerns about the federal cuts will outweigh the risk of antagonising the White House.

In an April 30 note to alumni, Brown University president Christina H. Paxson said about three dozen of the school's grants and contracts had been cancelled, and that the government had stopped funding many research grants.

She said news reports stated that the Trump administration had threatened an additional US$510 million (S$650 million) in grants and contracts to the university.

The moves, she wrote, represented "a significant threat to Brown's financial sustainability".

She urged alumni to lobby lawmakers about the issue and added links for making donations to the university, including to support research whose federal funding was cancelled or delayed. Brown said data was not yet available for release about whether giving had increased as a result.

Many other institutions have opted for more caution.