Some large donations to US universities and colleges
California Institute of Technology, $600 million in two gifts from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, 2001.
Columbia University, $400 million from John W. Kluge, 2007.
Stanford University, $400 million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 2001.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, $360 million from an anonymous donor, 2001.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, $350 million from Patrick J. and Lore Harp McGovern, in 2000.
University of Arkansas, $300 million, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, 2002.
Emory University, $295 million from Lettie Pate Evans, Joseph B. Whitehead, and Robert W. Woodruff, 1996.
Tufts and Lesley universities, equally sharing $272 million from Frank Currier Doble.
Emory University, $261.5 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, 2006.
Cornell University Weill Medical College, $250 million from Sanford I. and Joan Weill, 2007.
New York University, at least $250 million from Sir Harold Acton, who donated a 57-acre Italian estate, a collection of Renaissance art, and $25 million in cash, 1994.
University of Colorado system, $250 million from William T. Coleman III and Claudia Coleman, 2001.
University of Texas at Austin, $232 million from John A. (Jack) Jackson, 2002.
Claremont McKenna College: $200 million from an anonymous donor, 2007.
Columbia University, $200 million from Dawn M. Greene and the Jerome L. Greene Foundation, 2006.
New York University, $200 million from the Leon Levy Foundation, 2006.
University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine, $200 million from David Geffen, 2002.
SOURCE: The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac 