Abstract
There are effective tools in world practice that allow building systemic relations between business and education to accelerate the development of universities, ensuring high standards of the scientific and educational process. One of them is educational fundraising based on endowment funds. The modern endowment mechanism covers a system of actors: universities as producers of new knowledge; the business community as systemic "donors", university graduates as special benefactors, management companies as operators of increasing the target capital. The overall socio- economic effect of the endowment fund is concentrated in the mechanism of the relationship between the resource attraction model, the cause-and-effect relationships of charity, and relevant scientific and educational projects financed by the endowment. The development of educational fundraising mechanisms in general and endowment funding of universities in particular contributes to their innovative growth, scaling of knowledge and is a key factor in strengthening inter-sectoral social partnership. The purpose of this study is a theoretical and methodological analysis of the phenomenon of educational fundraising in modern conditions, including the identification of its conceptual basis, constituent essence, socio-economic purpose and factor specificity.