Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
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."
Advertisement
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.)
T-13. Nike co-founder and billionaire Philip Knight donated $400 million to Stanford University in 2016.
Knight graduated from Stanford's business school in 1962. The donation would help establish a graduate-level fellowship program at the school.
T-13. The Hewlett Foundation donated $400 million to Stanford University in 2001, at the time the single largest gift to an American college or university.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation was founded by Hewlett-Packard cofounder and his wife. Around $300 million went toward the School of Humanities and Sciences, and $100 million went to the Campaign for Undergraduate Education, according to a Stanford press release.
T-13. Hedge-fund manager John A. Paulson donated $400 million to Harvard University in 2015.
T-13. Television mogul John W. Kluge donated $400 million to Columbia University in 2007.
Kluge directed the funds go toward financial-aid packages to undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest donation focused on student aid, according to a Columbia University press release.
T-13. Holocaust survivors Howard and Lottie Marcus donated $400 million to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel in 2016.
T-7. Helen Diller, wife of real estate billionaire Sanford Diller, donated $500 million to the University of California-San Francisco last year.
The gift went toward building a new hospital at the University's Parnassus Heights campus, according to the UCSF website.
T-7. Knight donated $500 million to Oregon University in 2016, the largest donation to a public flagship university in US history.
Phil and his wife, Penny, donated the money to go toward a new science complex.
The sum amounts to $539 million adjusted for inflation.
T-3. Florence Irving donated $600 million in funds to Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian to fund cancer research on behalf of her and her husband, Herbert.
Florence made the donation in 2017, a year after her husband's passing. The sum amounts to $625 million in today's dollars.
Herbert Irving earned his wealth through founding Global Frozen Foods, which later became Sysco.
T-3. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore and his wife, Betty, donated $600 million over 10 years to the California Institute of Technology in 2001.
At the time, the donation was the largest ever to an institute of higher learning, according to Caltech's website.
The sum amounts to $866 million in today's dollars.
2. Anil Agarwal, an Indian metals and mining magnate who has a net worth of $3.5 billion, donated $1 billion to fund a research university in Odisha.
In 2006, the donation marked the largest single gift to a higher-education institution, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Today, the sum amounts to $1.2 billion adjusted for inflation.
1. Michael Bloomberg's donation of $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University.
Bloomberg intended his gift go toward making JHU "need-blind," or admitting students regardless of their financial background. The gift is the largest donation to an individual American college, according to Inside Higher Ed.