U.S. colleges and universities received a record $43.6 billion in charitable contributions in 2017, the Council for Aid to Education says.

The council's annual Voluntary Support of Education survey found that 2017 contributions to higher-education institutions increased 6.3 percent compared with 2016.

Topping the list of universities receiving the most contributions, as it did in 2016, is Harvard University—it received about $1.3 billion. The only other university to surpass the billion-dollar mark in 2017 was Stanford, which took in about $1.1 billion in donations.

The  $43.6 billion in contributions is the highest level reported since the council began its survey in 1957.

The 20 institutions that raised the most funds account for less than 1 percent of the nation's colleges, yet collect 28.1 percent of all gifts in 2017—$12.23 billion.

Here are the 10 universities that received the greatest amount of donations in 2017.