Colleges and universities across the US are still reaping the generosity of gifts bestowed to them by corporations, supporters, and alumni. Despite economic pressures which are hitting the vast majority of Americans, donations to public and private schools of higher learning continue to run strong.

Some gifts come with strings attached, such as setting up a specific academic chair or renaming a business school for the donor, while others are given freely with some offered in total anonymity.

Not every gift involves money with some bequests made in the form of land, stock, or other transferable assets. Among the more notable gifts of the past few years were:

• Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA received a gift in the form of a 400-acre farm. The Eden Hall farm, donated by the foundation of the same name, will be used by the school as a living laboratory and to address issues of environmental sustainability.

• Douglas L. and Maria Bayer of Washington State donated one million dollars to Knox College in Illinois with the stipulation that the funds be used to establish an academic chair of Earth Sciences. Knox, who made his fortune at Microsoft, credits a pair of Knox instructors with helping him learn to think for himself, not what to think.

• Ohio Wesleyan University received a gift from the estate of Robert C. Manchester, M.D., a 1927 graduate of the college. His six million dollar bequest was added to the Ida Austin Manchester Scholarship Fund, which he and his sisters, Ohio Wesleyan graduates Winifred Manchester and Lois Manchester Mack, established in 1986 in memory of their mother to aid students who have achieved scholastic excellence.

• Tiny as it is, The College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN was able to build a new dining and conference center thanks to a $3.5 million gift from Ben and Dorothy Gorecki of Milaca, MN. The couple’s connection to the college is through their granddaughter who attended the school; the donation was the largest one ever received by Saint Benedict, a college with just 2000 students.

• In 2005, Wellesley College had the distinction of receiving the single largest contribution ever made to a women’s college. Leonie Faroll, a lifelong New Yorker and Wellesley grad, asked that the funds be used for capital improvements to the power plant and for infrastructure improvements, structural renovations, and new equipment in the Massachusetts school’s Science Center.

• Though many donations made to colleges and universities are for an expressed purpose, Colgate University received a ten million dollar donation to the school’s endowment fund, the largest monies ever given to this fund. Colgate’s donor was anonymous and the university says the money will be used to help make changes to certain campus facilities as well as to support Colgate’s strategic plan.

Of course, tens of thousands of donations are made every month to schools of higher learning in amounts that often do not get the publicity that the big donors receive. When it comes to huge fundraising campaigns, it is the collective gifts of the smaller donors which bring in the most cash, sometimes adding hundreds of millions dollars to a school’s coffers.

(Source: CollegeNews.org)

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Tags: bequests, college chairs, donations, endowments, gifts, wills

If you’re like many Americans who are decidedly against the raising of taxes haphazardly, one Massachusetts proposal may have your head nodding in agreement that one proposal could be worth considering.

The Bay State, which is home to some our nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities, is taking a look at the large endowment funds at several of its citadels of higher learning and is considering slapping a 2.5% tax on endowments larger than one billion dollars. With nine schools having endowments that would be affected by the state’s proposal, the repercussions could be enormous.

Though sometimes derided for its high tax policies, indeed the state is called ‘Taxachussets’ by some, Bay State legislators have some compelling reasons for the tax:

• Endowment funds are currently tax exempt. All monies raised are garnered without threat of local, state, or federal taxation.

• Profits from endowments averaged nearly 17% in 2007, more than three times the yield most savers can get from their investments.

• Endowments continue to grow because most schools are hesitant to spend what they receive. In 2007, only 4.4% of endowment money was spent at the average school.

Harvard students just received notice that their education expenses will increase by 3.5% next fall which is about the same as the inflation rate. However, with school costing just above $47,000 annually, the burden on families only gets heavier.

According to CNN host, Glenn Beck, Harvard’s $34.6 billion endowment is the largest in the country. If the school were to take 1% of their endowment funds and applied those monies to student tuition and fees, every student enrolled at Harvard would attend the school for free.

Similar legislation is also being studied on the federal level and is, according to the Christian Science Monitor, a distinct possibility once a U.S. Senate panel completes its review of 136 schools with endowments of at least $500 million.

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Tags: endowment tax, endowments, Harvard