Editor’s Introduction

An overview of the Spring 2012 issue on giving to colleges and universities

By Christopher Levenick

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

Back to the Drawing Board

Jeff Sandefer is reinventing the MBA

By Christopher Levenick

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

Jeff Sandefer is on a mission to reinvent the MBA. A decade ago, he co-founded the Acton School of Business, which offers a crash-course MBA in entrepreneurship. After its first year, the Princeton Review ranked Acton as one of the nation’s top three business schools in terms of student quality, teacher quality, and overall experience. Ten years later, Sandefer is thinking about the next revolution: how to take the Acton experience and deliver it online.

New U.

Meet the donors who have taken it upon themselves to launch new colleges

By Evan Sparks

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

It is remarkable that, in survey after survey, at least 10 of the world’s 20 best universities bear the names of private American citizens who have used their wealth to create world-class institutions of higher learning. Private, voluntary support has long been a source of great strength for American higher education. In our Spring 2012 cover story, managing editor Evan Sparks highlights three donors and the universities they recently created: the F. W. Olin College of Engineering, Ave Maria University, and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

The Philanthropy behind James Q. Wilson

By Adam Meyerson

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

Innovation for the Real World

Desh Deshpande is bringing the market to MIT’s labs

By Matthew Bishop and Michael Green

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

“Desh” Deshpande is bringing the market to MIT’s labs. With a $20 million donation, he created the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation to connect researchers with entrepreneurs, thereby finding the best (and most profitable) applications for the new technologies. It’s all part of Deshpande’s effort, write Michael Bishop and Matthew Green, to take great ideas out of the ivory towers and bring them into the real world.

Summa Cum Philanthropy

Giving to universities can be tricky. Here are 11 strategies for making sure your gift is used as you wish

By Frederic J. Fransen

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

Giving to universities can be tricky. They are complicated entities, with a range of (often conflicting) missions. Donor advisor Fred Fransen offers 11 tips for how to give intelligently to higher education.

Pilgrims’ Progress

Desires to strengthen religious faith are responsible for a flurry of new colleges in recent decades

By Evan Sparks

Opening Up the University

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is funding what could someday be viewed as higher education’s Great Disruption

By Andrew Kelly

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

A century from now, observers may well identify the last months of 2011 as the start of higher education’s Great Disruption.

Ex Libris Philanthropy

Donors are making Great Books available to the public

By Christopher Levenick

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2012

Philanthropy on Campus

A collection of previous Philanthropy stories on giving to higher education

Private support for higher education is one of the great achievements of American philanthropy. Check out the Spring 2012 issue of Philanthropy magazine dedicated to donors advancing higher education through their giving and browse this special collection of higher education features from our archives.

The Old College Try

By focusing on students at risk of dropping out, donors are finding ways to move the needle on college graduation rates.

By Evan Sparks

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2010

Tiger’s Intent: The Princeton-Robertson Settlement

By Adam Meyerson

From Philanthropy magazine, Winter 2009

One of this century’s most important legal disputes over donor intent was finally settled in December of 2008. Adam Meyerson discusses the importance of clear donor intent in the settlement of the Robertson-Princeton case—and its implications for university giving.

Duke of Carolina

Was James B. Duke more successful than Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller?

By Evan Sparks

From Philanthropy magazine, Winter 2011

Was James B. Duke more successful than Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller? All three men established lasting philanthropic legacies, but unlike the open-ended mandates of the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, Duke’s has a clearly defined and carefully observed philanthropic mission. His is a remarkable success story in avoiding the hazards of perpetuity. Duke left much of his fortune to the Carolinas, and his endowment today continues to enrich the land he loved.

Intellectual Capital

Meet the donors who are headed to campus, making the case for free enterprise.

By Evan Sparks

From Philanthropy magazine, Spring 2011

Meet the donors who are working to ensure that students today appreciate the benefits of free enterprise tomorrow. Philanthropists like John Allison, Marilyn Fedak, Bernie Marcus, and Robert and Patricia Kern are hoping to make a case for the rightness of the free enterprise system by sponsoring programs to teach the moral benefits of free markets on colleges nationwide.

Joy Story

How Ira Fulton is changing the culture, one animated feature at a time.

By Kyle Smith

From Philanthropy magazine, Summer 2011

Ira Fulton is working to change popular culture, one animated feature at a time. When the Arizona homebuilder provided Brigham Young University with a suite of five supercomputers, nobody knew quite what to expect. Few would have predicted that within a decade, Pixar president Ed Catmull would say, “BYU has risen to the top.”