University foundations currently face a more complicated set of demands than in prior years. Fundraising and stewardship remain central, but those responsibilities now sit alongside increased legal and regulatory attention, heightened expectations for governance, greater public scrutiny, and calls for closer alignment with institutional strategy and risk management.

For many foundations, the key issue is not one discrete challenge; it is the overlap of several. Changes in the regulatory environment may coincide with pressure on university budgets, questions about endowment spending, cybersecurity concerns, evolving donor expectations, or sensitive campus concerns and issues of national importance. That convergence makes it important for foundations to think more broadly about governance, preparedness, and coordination.

Current Priorities for Foundations – Beyond the Fundraising Dollar

One priority is cross-campus coordination. University foundations often operate at the multi-way intersection of  advancement and donor-relations with finance, legal, compliance, audit, IT, athletics, senior university leadership, foundation and university boards. When those functions are well coordinated, foundations are better able to address complex matters such as donor restrictions, shared services, crisis response, data governance, and policy implementation. When coordination is weak, issues that appear manageable in one unit can create larger legal, tax, or reputational concerns across the institution.

Another priority, especially in today’s environment, is a focus on legal and regulatory developments in the higher education and non-profit spaces. Foundations should assess whether changes in federal enforcement priorities, reporting expectations, tax-exempt compliance, or related-party oversight affect current policies and practices. At the same time, they should be careful not to overreact to uncertainty or to informal signals that may not yet reflect settled requirements. A disciplined approach usually includes identifying where change is most likely to affect the foundation, reviewing governance documents, and monitoring more authoritative guidance as it develops.  Documentation remains a related and increasingly important theme. In a period of greater scrutiny, the ability to show how decisions were made can matter as much as the decisions themselves.

Foundations should also revisit how closely their activities align with the needs of the institution they support. That may mean looking carefully at how donor priorities, endowment strategy, and operational planning fit with broader university pressures, including enrollment trends, revenue uncertainty, and strategic investments. Strong alignment can help foundations support the institution more effectively while reducing the risk of fragmented decision-making.

These issues are rarely purely legal or purely operational. They usually require a combination of governance, policy, legal/compliance, and institutional judgment. The Hunton Higher Education team often frames this work around helping colleges and universities, and their related foundations, anticipate issues, manage risk across functions, and respond to challenges in a way that supports mission and protects reputation. For foundations, that perspective is especially relevant when uncertainty is likely to remain a defining feature of the landscape and university fundraising becomes ever more important.

How Hunton’s Higher Education Team Can Help

Keep an eye out our forthcoming client alerts focused on university foundations – When Risks Converge: Strategic Preparedness and Cross-Campus Coordination for University Foundations and When the Rules Shift: Legal and Regulatory Changes for University Foundations. If you have questions about this and implications for your institution, please do not hesitate to reach out your Hunton Higher Education attorney for assistance.