How Some Grantmakers Make Life Harder for Nonprofits

A Look at Higher Education Philanthropy

Giving Compass' Take: • Bruce DeBoskey highlights a Malcolm Gladwell talk in which Gladwell says philanthropic dollars are "going to the wrong places for the wrong reasons" in higher education. • What does your higher education giving strategy look like? Can you redirect your funds to better serve those in need of support in higher education?  • Read more about why higher ed needs to be less elitist in order to survive. Most people agree that higher education philanthropy is worthy of support. In 2016, nearly half of all donations from the largest 50 donors in the United States went to colleges and universities. That same year, U.S. colleges and universities accepted $41 billion in contributions. In early 2015, higher education endowments totaled more than $535 billion, with the top 120 schools holding 75 percent of that sum. Some schools — including Harvard, Stanford, Yale, University of Texas and Princeton — have endowments of more than $20 billion apiece. This is larger than the gross domestic products of many countries. Last year, Malcolm Gladwell (author of best sellers such as "Tipping Point," "Blink" and "Outliers") spoke about educational philanthropy in a controversial podcast called “My Little Hundred Million.” In this 40-minute discussion, Gladwell describes the impact of the donation of $100 million by industrialist Hank Rowan to Glassboro State College in New Jersey for an engineering department and building. At the time, Glassboro was nearly bankrupt. In 1992, this donation gained attention as the largest-ever single gift to a public college or university. Since then, more than 175 gifts of $100 million or more have been given to higher education institutions — mostly to schools with high name recognition and big endowments. Read the full article about higher education philanthropy by Bruce DeBoskey at Wealth Management.