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- Here are the 15 largest donations to public and private colleges, tracked using data from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- The largest donation belongs to billionaire and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
- Nike co-founder Phil Knight has made several donations above $100 million to schools on the West Coast.
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Billionaire Robert F. Smith shocked the nation after announcing he would pay off all student loans for the 400-person graduating class at Atlanta’s Morehouse College.
The gift, which reportedly amounts to $40 million, differs from other college donations because it goes toward eliminating college debt for students. Philanthropists and billionaires typically give colleges millions to fund programs or build new schools.
The largest gift in higher education belongs to Michael Bloomberg, who recently donated $1.8 billion to make his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, "need-blind."
The Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks major donations to higher education after 1967, updated its list of the priciest single donations to universities and colleges earlier this month. The Chronicle found over 100 donations that totaled $101 million or more.
Here are the 15 most generous single-time donations to colleges and universities since 1967. (The list excludes donations to educational institutes or programs.)
15. Chuck Feeney, who helped pioneer duty-free shopping, donated $350 million to Cornell University in 2011.
Facebook/Carnegie Corporation
Feeney kept his donation anonymous until The New York Times unmasked his identity.
14. An anonymous donor gave $360 million to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private research university in Troy, New York, in 2001.
Facebook/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
At the time, the donation marked the largest gift ever to any public or private university in the United States. The gift amounts to about $519 million in today’s dollars.
T-13. Nike co-founder and billionaire Philip Knight donated $400 million to Stanford University in 2016.
AP
Knight graduated from Stanford’s business school in 1962. The donation would help establish a graduate-level fellowship program at the school.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Allana Akhtar)