In what is a record for the world’s richest college, Harvard University raised $1.2 billion from donations.

The New York-based Council for Aid to Education, which tracks university giving, said in a survey released Tuesday that as colleges collected an unprecedented $41 billion in fiscal 2016, Harvard’s take was the most by any U.S. university. Marking only the second time in 12 years that Stanford failed to outpace Harvard in fundraising, Stanford University was ranked No. 2, with $951 million.

Compared to the previous year, the total was up almost 2 percent. Once again concentrating the wealth among the richest schools, the top 20 schools accounted for 27 percent of all donations. The same 20 institutions raised about 2 percent less than last year.

How weak endowment returns can be helped to be offset by the richest colleges’ appeals to wealthy donors is showcased by the fundraising totals. According to an industry survey, on an average, U.S. college endowments declined 1.9 percent. Wealthy schools will have to set aside a portion of their gift for financial aid or risk losing their tax deduction according to a new bill that Congress is considering.

“When investment earnings for colleges are down, they’re also down in portfolios for wealthy individuals and foundation and donor-advised funds,” said Ann Kaplan, the survey’s director. “When one of these sources loses wealth, generally on the whole, they all lose ground at the same time.”

Funds in the survey don’t include pledges but only count money received. Current operations were funded by most of the contributions – about 60 percent. According to Kaplan, about a quarter of the reported gifts are gifts to build the endowment. Most schools end their fiscal year in June. Its previous record of $1.16 billion two years ago was beaten by Harvard with a $35.7 billion endowment.

“It is hard to overstate the importance of philanthropy to the university,” Patrick McKiernan, a Harvard spokesman, said in a statement. Gifts for current use represented 9 percent and contributing to 36 percent of university operating revenues was 36 percent of the distributions from the endowment.

At $22.4 billion the fourth-largest endowment was with Stanford. In addition to “a strong increase in value” of campus real estate held by the school, donations helped offset Stanford’s modest investment loss. According to the school, real estate holdings off campus leased to companies, hotels and other firms make up about 15 percent of the endowment. Stanford’s fund captured two strong months of performance and its fiscal year ends in August.

Compared to the previous years, there was  a decline in the donations from individuals. While giving from corporations grew by almost 15 percent, donations from alumni dropped 8.5 percent and by 6 percent from non-alumni. According to the survey, foundations and other organizations also contributed more this year compared to previous years. At about 16 percent for about a decade, gifts for financial aid have been steady.

The group used data to estimate a total for institutions that didn’t respond and about 950 schools responded to the survey.

(Adapted from Bloomberg)