AUB's Finances in Solid State
At the end of WWI, the Near East College Office in New York helped to solve some of the financial problems of American educational institutions in the region (including those of AUB), which had resulted from the First World War. After a preliminary campaign to pay off war debts and to meet immediate deficits, there was organized in 1925 a nationwide appeal, which yielded $2,500,000. The purpose of this appeal was to assure for five years the operating expenses of the two American colleges at Istanbul, International College at Izmir, the new Sofia American Schools, and the American University of Beirut.
Dodge, B. (1958). The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat's. p:62
In 1927, the Near East College Association became incorporated and about that time moved to Rockefeller Center. During 1928 and 1929, Mr. Staub conducted a successful campaign to bring the total endowment of the Near East Colleges to $15,000,000. As a result of this campaign the endowment fund of the University was increased from $1,226,347 to $4,500,000.
Dodge, B. (1958). The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat's. p:62
"[Soon thereafter], the Foundation capitalized this aid by giving a million dollars for endowment, after the Trustees had fulfilled the condition of raising half a million from other sources. The aid of the Foundation cannot be stated solely in terms of money, because much help was also given by its experts in training young men, organizing research, and appointing personnel."
Dodge, B. (1958). The American University of Beirut: A brief history of the university and the lands which it serves. Beirut: Khayat's. p:66
"This raising of standards and development of research has been chiefly due to the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation... Finally in May 1939, the Medical Science Division of the Rockefeller Foundation gave a million dollars to the University, with the understanding that it would be used for endowment, to help finance the institution, when the annual grants were discontinued. Thus over a period of fourteen years the Foundation has aided and encouraged the members of the Faculty at Beirut to raise their standards, to develop research and to modernize their work. Many efficient, wide awake men and women throughout the Near East express by their everyday work what the help of the Foundation has meant to them and to those whom they are called upon to serve."
Report of the President of the American University of Beirut for the Seventy-Third Year, 1938-1939: P 9-10.