Harvard Law School Raises Record $61M in First Half of FY26

Harvard Law School raised at least $61 million through the first six months of fiscal year 2026 — the strongest start in its history — according to internal meeting minutes obtained by The Crimson.

The figure, discussed at a Jan. 27 meeting of the Law School’s major gifts team, marks the largest total HLS has ever recorded by January.

“This is by far the most we’ve had at this point in the fiscal year,” Harvard Law School Director of Development Francisco Martinez told staff, according to the minutes.

The surge represents a rebound for a fundraising operation that had faced significant headwinds in the wake of a donor exodus following Harvard’s response to the war in Gaza.

By a Jan. 6 meeting, HLS had already topped $52 million — its second-best six-month stretch ever, “campaign or not,” Martinez said. By Jan. 27, that total hit $61 million, seemingly buoyed by a string of large December gifts, including seven six-figure donations to the Annual Fund — which supports HLS’s day-to-day operations — alone, according to the minutes.

Still, administrators are setting an aggressive target for the months ahead. The minutes indicate that Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations Steven Oliveira has told staff that he is aiming for $100 million by June 30, the end of the fiscal year.

Even as fundraising totals climb, unease persists inside the development office.

At the Jan. 6 meeting, one gifts officer raised concerns about how a potential settlement deal between Harvard and the Trump administration could affect donor sentiment. Martinez acknowledged the uncertainty, telling colleagues that “outside of that discourse, things are looking good.”

Harvard affiliates have consistently decried Harvard’s negotiations with the Trump administration. More than 14,000 affiliates — including alumni, students, faculty, and members of the public — signed a letter to Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 in August, urging him to reject any proposed deal.

The early momentum follows a turbulent period for Harvard fundraising. Donations slowed after Harvard’s slow-walked response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to some donors stepping back or withholding gifts altogether. At that time, Harvard gift officers internally worried how Harvard’s political crisis would shape short- and long-term fundraising.

Around that time, staff began suppressing contact with several groups of alumni: those who had contacted the development office to criticize Harvard’s conduct; individuals on Harvard’s hardship list, including those living in Israel, Palestine, and Ukraine; and alumni who signed the Jewish Alumni Alliance’s symbolic $1 protest pledge last year, according to an email obtained by The Crimson.

Development staff created a shared folder — labeled “Negative Feedback” — initially to track donor complaints about Harvard’s handling of campus matters, per the email.

But both the volume of messages — and the scope of donor concerns — have since expanded.

In one instance last March, a donor emailed HLS Dean John C.P. Goldberg to urge the school to more boldly speak out against actions by the Trump administration targeting lawyers and law firms, according to an email reviewed by The Crimson.

Within hours, a development staffer instructed colleagues to save the message to a new internal tracking folder.

HLS spokesperson Jeff Neal wrote in a statement to The Crimson that it is “standard practice” for development staff to “regularly update records on the communications preferences of alumni, including those who have asked not to be contacted.”

The Law School’s rebound is part of a broader fundraising surge across Harvard.

The Faculty of Arts and Science had one of its strongest fundraising periods in the second half of 2025, raising $222 million, while the University reported $695 million in donations and planned payments in the early months of fiscal year 2026 — far surpassing the $440 million raised over the same period a year earlier.

That influx comes at a critical juncture. Harvard is contending with a $113 million operating deficit — its first since 2020 — increasing pressure on individual schools to sustain strong fundraising performance.

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @MeganBlonigen.

—Staff writer Graham W. Lee can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @grahamwonlee.