Dear Commons Community,
Below is a list of all gifts of $100 million or more made to colleges and universities in 2018. The gifts and biographical information were compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education from news articles, news releases, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s database of charitable gifts. The database compiles gifts of $1 million or more from 2005 to the present. The Chronicle of Higher Education maintains a separate list of major gifts of $50 million or more to colleges and universities, dating back to 1967. The value of gifts is based on information from institutions or donors at the time the gifts were promised or received.
Thank you to these donors for their generosity!
Tony
| 1. | Johns Hopkins U. | Michael R. Bloomberg | Co-founder of the media company Bloomberg and former mayor of New York | $1.8 billion | Financial aid for qualified low- and middle-income students, with the goal of making admissions permanently need-blind |
| 2. | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Stephen A. Schwarzman | Co-founder of the Blackstone Group, a private-equity firm in New York | $350 million | Establishment of the Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, which will integrate computer science, artificial intelligence, and related fields across MIT’s five schools, and will create a deanship and 50 faculty positions |
| 3. | Harvard Medical School | Blavatnik Family Foundation (Len Blavatnik) | Len Blavatnik, who earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1989, is founder and chairman of Access Industries, a New York investment company with holdings in media, telecommunications, natural resources, chemicals, and real estate. | $200 million (pledge) | Support for medical research to develop new therapies and tools to diagnose, prevent, and treat disease; provision of space for biotech start-ups in the new Blavatnik Harvard Life Lab Longwood; and naming of the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School |
| 3. | Mayo Clinic | Jay Alix | Founder of AlixPartners, a consulting firm on global corporate turnarounds in New York | $200 million | Naming gift for what will be known as the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, in support of scholarships, curricular innovation, and a professorship |
| 5. | Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History | Edward P. Bass | Chairman of Fine Line, an investment and venture-capital management firm, in Fort Worth; an heir to an oil fortune; and a 1967 Yale alumnus | $160 million | Support for renovations and expansion of the museum |
| 6. | U. of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus | Anschutz Foundation (Philip Anschutz) | Philip Anschutz is owner of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and a third of the L.A. Lakers basketball team as well as holdings in entertainment, oil, railroads, real estate, and telecommunications. He is a co-founder of Major League Soccer. | $120 million | Support for a new health-sciences building, research, faculty recruitment and retention, technology transfer, and other programs |
| 7. | U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor | Richard and Susan Rogel | Richard Rogel, a 1970 Michigan graduate, is president of the investment firm Tomay, and founder and former chairman and chief executive of the Preferred Provider Organization of Michigan. | $110 million (pledge) | Support for scholarships for medical students and for research, treatments, and endowed professorships at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, which was renamed the Rogel Cancer Center |
| 8. | Amherst College | anonymous | Graduate of the college | $100 million | Challenge gift to match other gifts to the college’s capital campaign, which aims to raise funds for student aid, faculty support, a new interdisciplinary science center, and other causes |
| 8. | Brown U. | Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney | Robert Carney, a 1961 graduate of Brown and a member of its Board of Trustees, is chairman of Vacation Publications, in Houston, and was founder of Texas Air Corporation, which owned Continental and other airlines. Nancy Carney is a former television-news producer. | $100 million | Support to help the Brown Institute for Brain Science work toward developing new treatments and cures for neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; the institute was renamed the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science |
| 8. | Harvard U. | anonymous | Graduate of Harvard in the 1990s and his wife | $100 million | Support for Harvard’s Science Center, collaborations and a fellowship in mathematics, and resources for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences |
| 8. | National U. system | T. Denny Sanford | Chairman of United National Corporation, the holding company of First Premier Bank and Premier Bankcard, in South Dakota | $100 million | Expansion of the system’s nationwide Sanford Harmony social-emotional learning program aimed at helping children in preschool through sixth grade to form strong relationships and to avoid abuse, bullying behavior, and, later, divorce |
| 8. | United World College system | Shelby Davis | Founder and former chief executive, now retired, of the investment-management firm Davis Advisors, in Boston | $100 million (pledge) | Support to endow 100 annual scholarships a year for 20 years to enable international students to attend one of the system’s 17 campuses around the world, including in New Mexico |
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