To get notoriety and to put their names on buildings.
A form of greenwashing. My wife went to a school where Khashoggi donated a bunch of money and built a building. They changed his big name plaque to a tiny one and called the building something else. All the students still called it the Khashoggi building. A decade or two later, they removed his name entirely.
As a way to connect with valuable business contacts.
Vanity.
To help get their kid admitted.
To fund a field of research that they have a great interest in.
etc.
I think āmaking education affordableā if it is on the list at all, is way way way down near the bottom.
The Kalamazoo Promise is a pledge by a group of anonymous donors to pay up to 100 percent of tuition at many Michigan colleges and universities for graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools district of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Kalamazoo Promise applies to all of Michiganās state colleges and universities, as well as the 15 private colleges of the Michigan College Alliance and several apprenticeships and skilled trade programs
Yes. Itās not an endowment, itās a scholarship. Two different things. One is controlled by a school, one isnāt. There are thousands of different scholarships all across the USA, all with varying target audiences, and varying eligibility requirements. Some are as simple as filling an application and writing a short essay (some of my kids have done this successfully).
This one is quite excellent and has pretty good results for Kalamozoo graduates. I strongly suspect that endowments in general would be far more effective in this regard if they werenāt tied to a specific university.
First difference, that comes to my mind is a scholarship program only lasts as long as the person with the money is alive to keep writing checks, while an endowment is not limited to the life of one person.
Indeed. Would have been nice if it had existed when I was in college, but, when I was in college, the state funded higher education well enough that I could cover school expenses from my paycheck at Radio Shack.
The Promise has received some recognition, including being selected to have the POTUS deliver the commencement address, some years ago.
Thereās a terminology issue, too. At my school there are basically what we call scholarships that are really a form of endowment. These scholarships are, for example, directed toward a certain subject matter/major/department, toward a program for āgifted and talentedā students, etc. These scholarships went on past the life of the donor, but unlike typical endowments, the school could not re-direct them where it pleased.
Iām just pleased there are a few with big stacks of money, that use it for something other than building a monument to themselves.
Several years ago, the Mayor of Detroit was a world class crook, stealing millions, while the city crumbled. The ex-mayor was sentenced to 28 years in the Federal jugā¦then TIG let him out, but thatās another story.
So, with the city bankrupt, there was no money to replace dilapidated city vehicles. Some of the locals stepped up.
A majority of the endowment money is earmarked as scholarship monies. It is determined to pay tuitions. The endowment monies have rules on the usage.
There are scholarship programs in memory of that go on for decades after the wealthy person has died. It is a larger amount of money throwing off yield.