Private financial donations to Harvard rose to $57.1 million last year, as Harvard remains the nation's leading recipient of gifts and bequests.

After declining 23 per cent in 1971-72, total contributions rose 19 per cent in the year which ended last June 30. This increase parallels a nationwide upward trend reported by the Council for Aid to Higher Education.

According to a council survey of 1020 colleges and universities, donations increased 11 per cent last year as expenditures at the same institutions rose about 8.7 per cent. At Harvard, expenditures increased about 7 per cent in 1972-73.

Private donations accounted for 14.8 per cent of the University budget in 1972-73, as alumni contributed 39 per cent of all gifts, trusts and bequests. Foundations provided 26 per cent of all donations, non-alumni 20 per cent, and corporations 11 per cent of all donations.

Private contributions approach 20 per cent of the University budget if government grants are considered as a separate and unchanging part of the budget, George W. Singular, investment analyst in the office of the Treasurer, said yesterday.

Harvard benefited last year from a 34 per cent alumni participation rate in fund raising.

"Without private donations there would be no endowment, and a large portion of the budget spent last year came from private contributions of the past," Chase N. Peterson '52, vice president for alumni affairs and development, said yesterday.

Because donations are often earmarked for restricted use, "not all the $31 million given for current use goes where we want it to go," Peterson said.