For the eighth year running, Stanford University is the top fundraising university in the US—and this year, its haul surpassed $1 billion, setting a new record. Runners-up were Harvard, with $650 million, and Yale, with $544 million, the BBC reports. Some 3,500 universities brought in a combined $31 billion, 2.3% more than last year and just below the 2008 record. "We're climbing out of the doldrums," says an analyst behind the survey. (More Stanford University stories.)