University of North Carolina Wilmington was down 19 percent in philanthropic support this fiscal year from last year’s record-breaking effort, but officials said the decrease is smaller than they expected.

During fiscal year 2008-09, UNCW received more than $11.2 million in philanthropic support, despite the economic downturn and a nationwide decrease in average giving to colleges and universities, according to a university press release.

While this amount reflects a big decrease from the $13.8 million received in fiscal year 2007-08, a record-breaking year for the university, it is a smaller decrease than UNCW officials expected, given the state of the economy. In addition, the number of UNCW donors remained the same during the last two fiscal years, the release said.

“When we analyzed our fundraising numbers at the end of the fiscal year, we were encouraged to see that our donors are maintaining their strong relationships with UNCW and want to give even if they aren’t able to give at the same level as they have in the past,” said Mary M. Gornto, vice chancellor for university advancement in the release. “Although our total dollar amounts are down, our giving participation has remained steady.”

The university has had several years of steady fundraising growth and record-breaking totals, which was expected to continue this past year if philanthropy nationally had not been affected by the economy.

Of the total received in fiscal year 2008-09, donors gave more than $6.7 million in outright gifts such as cash and stocks, with the remaining amount in pledges that will be fulfilled within a specific timeframe, such as three years. The 2008-09 fiscal year began July 1, 2008 and ended June 30, 2009.

“It is truly incredible that UNCW supporters have given at that level with the economic challenges we all faced this past year,” said Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo. “I continue to be amazed by the love and loyalty that our alumni, parents, friends, faculty, staff and students have for this university. They share our commitment to providing our students with the most powerful learning experience possible, for which we are very grateful.”

Dana Fischetti, the university’s media relations manager, said there are some programs that inevitably hurt in a down economy. “It tends to affect the amount of scholarship dollars we have for students,” she said. “It can also affect things like speaker series and additional funding for summer abroad programs.”

Fischetti said many programs are funded off the interest from endowments. So, when the interest rates drop sharply, the endowments don’t produce as much money for those programs.