1. | Saint Joseph’s U. | James Maguire Sr. and Frances Maguire | Mr. Maguire is founder of the Maguire Insurance Agency (later Philadelphia Insurance Companies), who sold his family’s share of the business for $1 billion in 2008 when it merged with Tokio Marine Group. He is a 1958 alumnus of Saint Joseph’s who credits the institution with helping him overcome his dyslexia. | $50 million | endowment for scholarships and support for a program in risk management and insurance |
2. | Gustavus Adolphus College | Anonymous | alumni couple | $40 million | support for scholarships, the renovation of the Nobel Hall of Science, annual operating funds, and the endowment |
3. | U. of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus | Bernard and Billi Marcus | Mr. Marcus is a co-founder of Home Depot, in Atlanta. | $38 million (pledge) | support for the Marcus Institute for Brain Health, which will provide treatment for traumatic brain injury, most notably among retired athletes and military veterans |
4. | Dakota State U. | T. Denny Sanford, and Miles and Lisa Beacom | Mr. Sanford is owner of Premier Bank, which offers credit cards to high-risk borrowers, and Mr. Beacom is the bank’s president and chief executive. | $30 million | support for construction of a new building, Madison Cyber Labs, for classified work on cybersecurity; endowment for scholarships; money to hire faculty and staff, and expand academic programs; the College of Computing will be renamed the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences to honor two of the donors |
5. | New York U., Langone Hospital-Brooklyn | Bezos Family Foundation (Mike and Jackie Bezos and their children) | Mr. and Ms. Bezos are the parents of Jeff Bezos, who founded the online retailer Amazon. | $25 million | support for early-childhood programs based on early brain development, advancement of mother-baby care, and help for families with young children |
6. | California State U. at Northridge | Younes and Soraya Sarah Nazarian | Mr. Nazarian founded Nazarian Enterprises, a Los Angeles company that invests in alternative energy, logistics technology, aerospace, and real estate. | $17 million | support for the Valley Performing Arts Center |
7. | Duke U. , Nicholas School of the Environment | Grainger Family Descendants Fund (Grainger family) | The family owns W.W. Grainger, a Chicago-based industrial supplier of motors, lighting, plumbing, tools, and other products. | $11 million | support to build and operate an offshore research ship at the Duke Marine Lab that will also serve as a classroom |
8. | Fordham U. | Stephen and Kim Bepler | Mr. Bepler is a Fordham alumnus and investment banker who died in 2016. Ms. Bepler is his widow. | $10.5 million (estate gift) | endowment for professorships in biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics; support for construction of a science building on the university’s Rose Hill campus |
9. | Indiana U. | two anonymous donors | n/a | $10 million | endowment for financial aid for students at the Kelley School of Business and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy |
9. | Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford | David and Julia Koch | Mr. Koch is executive vice president of Koch Industries, an industrial conglomerate. | $10 million | establishment of a new clinical-research unit within the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University |
9. | U. of Utah | Charles Koch Foundation (Charles (Bud) Koch) | Mr. Koch is a banker in Cincinnati. | $10 million (matching gift) | support for the creation of the Marriner S. Eccles Institute for Economics and Quantitative Analysis in the David Eccles School of Business |
12. | Colby College | Jim and Andrea Crook | Mr. Crook, a 1978 Colby graduate and a member of its Board of Trustees, is a private-equity investor and a former chief executive of the health-care IT company IDX Systems Corporation. | $8.3 million | support for a new basketball arena, which will be named for the donors, and the annual fund |
13. | Ocean County College | Jay and Linda Grunin Foundation (Jay and Linda Grunin) | The Grunins are retired lawyers who invest in real estate and other holdings. | $8 million | support to help construct a new building to house the Ocean County Vocational Technical School |
14. | Duquesne U., School of Law | Thomas Kline | Mr. Kline, a 1978 Duquesne Law School alumnus, is a founding partner of Kline & Specter, a personal-injury law firm in Philadelphia. | $7.5 million | establishment of the Thomas R. Kline Center for Judicial Education to offer continuing-education courses for judges in Pennsylvania |
14. | U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor | David and Meredith Kaplan | Mr. Kaplan, a 1989 Michigan graduate, co-founded Ares Management, an asset-management firm. Ms. Kaplan, a 1992 Michigan graduate, founded Gratus, a women’s-clothing boutique in Beverly Hills, Calif. | $7.5 million | support for the athletics department, including funds for building improvements and endowments for the men’s basketball head-coaching position and a scholarship fund |