Large Private Gifts Enhance Top-Tier Institutions

Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and founder of the finance and technology company that bears his name, is an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University. Last year, he bestowed a $1.8 billion on his alma mater, the largest gift in the history of American higher education. Nationwide, gifts to educational institutions of more than $10 million totaled more than $6 billion for the first time in 2017, continuing a post-recession surge in mega-gifts to colleges and universities. Donors made 194 such gifts in 2018, marking another record.

Large gifts are only one source of income for colleges and universities, but they provide significant insight into an institution’s plans for expansion and improvement. Checking out the recent large gifts that a school receives and the purposes to which those funds are designated can tell you much about how the school’s future. This information may help you make your college selection decision. 

Large donors are usually alumni. Sometimes they’re people who have professional connections with the school or perhaps they’ve been impressed by its graduates or feel a need to help a good school in dire need of funds. Whatever their motives, attending a school with support from deep-pocketed backers has obvious advantages. The funds that a school receives from them will be invested in new facilities, equipment, faculty, services, or practices as designated by the donor.  

Gifts to colleges and universities of more than $50 million that were made between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018, are listed below in Table A. Gifts of the same amount are listed alphabetically by receiving institution. 

Table A: Largest Private Gifts to Higher Education in 2018

 

Rank	Institution	Donor	Gift	Purpose
1.	Johns Hopkins	Michael R. Bloomberg	$1.8 billion	Financial aid for qualified low- and middle-income undergraduate students, with the goal of making admissions permanently “need-blind”.
2.	MIT	Stephen A. Schwarzman	$350 million	Establishment of the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, which will integrate computer science and artificial intelligence across MIT’s five undergraduate school
3.	Harvard	Blavatnik Family Foundation	$200 million	Support for medical research to develop tools to diagnose, prevent, and treat disease; provision of space for biotech start-ups in the Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab.
4.	Yale	Edward P. Bass	$160 million	Support for renovation and expansion of the Yale Museum of Natural History.
5.	Colorado	Anschutz Foundation	$120 million	Funds for new health-sciences building, research, faculty, and technology transfer programs.
6.	Michigan	Richard and Susan Rogel	$110 million	Support for scholarships for medical students and for research, treatments, and endowed professorships at the Rogel Cancer Center.
7.	Amherst	Anonymous	$100 million	Gift to the college’s capital campaign, which aims to raise funds for student aid, faculty support, and the new Science Center.
7.	Brown	Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney	$100 million	Support to help the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science in developing cures for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
7.	Harvard	Anonymous	$100 million	Support for Harvard’s Science Center and a fellowship in mathematics as well as resources for the undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences
7.	United World College System	Shelby Davis	$100 million	Support for 100 annual undergraduate scholarships for 20 years for students to attend the system’s 17 campuses worldwide.
8.	Western State Colorado	Paul M. Rady	$80 million	Support for establishment of the new Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science and Engineering, including a new building.
9.	Johns Hopkins	William H. Miller	$75 million	Creation of an endowed professorship for the chair of the philosophy department, eight other endowed professorships, and endowed support for junior faculty members, undergraduate philosophy students, and postdoctoral fellows.
10.	Princeton	Perelman Foundation	$65 million	Establishment of Perelman Residential College to help advance the institution’s goal of expanding undergraduate enrollment by 10%.
11.	Amherst	Anonymous	$50 million	Gift to support the college’s new Science Center, hiring of more faculty, and establishment of more need-based scholarships.
11.	Brown	Samuel M. and Ann S. Mencoff	$50 million	Support for endowed professorships, medical research, and medical education at the Brown Institute of Translational Science
11.	Carleton	Wally and Barbara Weitz	$50 million	Contribution to the college’s capital campaign to increase financial aid and internships.
11.	Carnegie Mellon	Tod and Cindy Johnson	$50 million	Support for undergraduate scholarships and programs to help students graduate.
11.	Northeastern	Amin and Julie Khoury	$50 million	Endowment to build the undergraduate Khoury College of Computer and Information Sciences.
11.	Oregon State	Gary R. Carlson	$50 million	Support for the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and for the expansion of the university’s Small Animal Hospital
11.	St. John’s of Annapolis	Winiarski Foundation	$50 million	Funds for the capital campaign that is intended to allow the college to lower tuition by about a third.
11.	Saint Louis University	Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield	$50 million	Support for the new Saint Louis University Research Institute, the Sinquefield Center for Applied Economic Research, and the chess team.
11.	UC San Diego	Andrew J. Viterbi	$50 million	Gift for the Viterbi Family Department of Ophthalmology and the Viterbi Family Vision Research Center
11.	Penn	Marc J. and Carolyn Rowan	$50 million	Support for the Wharton Budget Model, an economic-policy analysis program, and for new professorships and fellowships at Wharton.

 

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

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