1. | Harvard U., Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering | Hansjörg Wyss | former chief executive of the multinational medical-device manufacturer Synthes, and founder and former president of Synthes USA, which he sold for $20 billion to Johnson & Johnson in 2012 | $131 million | continued support for the Wyss institute’s work in developing and commercializing products to solve health-care and environmental problems |
2. | U. of California at Los Angeles, Samueli School of Engineering | Samueli Foundation (Henry and Susan Samueli) | Henry Samueli, a three-time UCLA graduate, is a co-founder and chairman of the software company Broadcom. He was a UCLA professor of electrical engineering from 1985 to 1995. | $100 million | expansion of the engineering school |
3. | U. of Virginia, Darden School of Business | Frank M. Sands Sr. | founder of Sands Capital Management, in Virginia, and a 1963 recipient of an M.B.A. from the Darden school | $68 million (matching gift) | $20-million endowment to strengthen teaching and extend the business school’s online reach through the new Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning; $21 million for 12 new professorships (matched by an additional $14 million from the university); $20 million for construction of a new inn and conference center; and $7 million to renovate C. Ray Smith Alumni Hall |
4. | California Polytechnic State U. at San Luis Obispo | anonymous | n/a | $50 million (pledge) | planned bequest for general support of the university’s Learn by Doing programs |
5. | Morehouse College | Robert F. Smith | chairman and chief executive of Vista Equity Partners, in Austin, Tex., and 2019 commencement speaker | $40 million (pledge) | pledge made during commencement speech to pay off the student loans of the entire 2019 graduating class |
6. | U. of South Florida | Judy Genshaft and her husband, Steven Greenbaum | Genshaft is retiring on July 1 after 19 years as president of the university. Her father founded the Ohio meat-packing company Fresh Mark. | $23 million | support for the university’s honors college, which will be named for Genshaft, who established it in 2002 |
7. | Kansas State U. Foundation | Paul and Sandra Edgerley | Paul Edgerley, a 1978 Kansas State alumnus, is a co-founder and managing director of VantEdge Partners, an investment firm in Kansas. He retired as managing director of Bain Capital Partners. | $20 million | support for the new Digital Learning Repository, the new Center for Financial Analysis, and several other programs in the College of Business Administration |
8. | California Polytechnic State U. at San Luis Obispo | James G. Boswell Foundation (James W. and Suzanne Boswell) | James W. Boswell, a 1977 university alumnus, is chairman and chief executive of J.G. Boswell Co., an agriculture and real-estate-development firm that his family founded in 1925. | $10 million | money to help construct a new plant-sciences building, which will be named for the donors’ friend George Wurzel |
8. | Colgate U. | Stephen and Gretchen Burke | Steve Burke, a 1980 university alumnus, is chief executive and president of NBCUniversal Media and senior executive vice president of Comcast Corporation. Gretchen Burke, his wife, is a retired banker, a 1981 alumna, and a member of Colgate’s Board of Trustees. | $10 million | naming gift for a new dormitory |
8. | Dartmouth College | Gregg and Molly Engles | Gregg Engles, a 1979 Dartmouth alumnus and a member of its Board of Trustees, is a founding partner of Capitol Peak Partners, a private-equity firm in Denver, and a former chairman of Dean Foods. | $10 million (pledge) | a capital-campaign gift to support a research and teaching area in the campus’s new Center for Engineering and Computer Science, recruitment of new faculty members, and completion of the renovation of the Hood Museum of Art, whose Engles Family Gallery has been named for the donors |
8. | Ohio Wesleyan U. | anonymous | alumni couple | $10 million | money to help build new residential apartments for fourth-year students, and to renovate and restore Slocum Hall |
8. | U. of Wisconsin at Madison, La Follette School of Public Affairs | Herb Kohl Philanthropies (Herbert H. Kohl) | Herbert Kohl is a former president of his family’s grocery and retail chain Kohl’s and former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. He was a U.S. senator representing Wisconsin from 1989 to 2013. | $10 million | support for faculty and student research, undergraduate internships, partnerships with nonpartisan organizations, conferences, and new class offerings in the La Follette school |
13. | Ohio Wesleyan U. | John and Kathryn Bradford Milligan | John Milligan, chairperson of Ohio Wesleyan’s Board of Trustees, is a former president and chief operating officer of Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company in California, and Kathryn Milligan was a media-relations consultant for Fortune 500 companies. The couple both graduated from the university in 1983. | $5 million | capital-campaign gift to help build new residential apartments for fourth-year students and make other residential improvements |
13. | U. of Colorado at Boulder | R. David and Suzanne Hoover | David Hoover is the retired chairman of the Ball Corporation, a food and beverage packaging and aerospace-technology company in Colorado. | $5 million | support for renovation of a new space for the School of Education, and for interdisciplinary offerings in the Center for Western Civilization, Thought, and Policy, the College of Music, and the athletics program |
15. | Ohio Wesleyan U. | Katherine Boles Smith and Alton Smith | Katherine Boles Smith, a 1971 alumna, is a member of the university’s Board of Trustees and a retired high-school teacher and counselor. | $4.2 million | donation to the capital campaign, to be used to renovate a dormitories, and support faculty development and other programs |
16. | Rochester Institute of Technology School of Photographic Arts and Sciences | Chance and Pamela Mars Wright | Pamela Mars Wright is a billionaire heiress and former chairman of her family’s confectionery company Mars Inc. Her son, Chance Wright, earned degrees from RIT in 2018 and 2019. | $3.5 million | funds that will allow the school to renovate its learning space |
16. | U. of Oregon College of Design and College of Arts and Sciences | anonymous | n/a | $3.5 million (pledge) | planned bequest to endow two professorships in the fields of urban design and urban economics |
18. | American Academy in Rome | Musa and Thomas Mayer | Musa Mayer is a book author whose father, Philip Guston, an abstract-expressionist artist, died in 1980. Thomas Mayer is a neuropsychologist. | $3 million | establishment of the Philip Guston Rome Prize in Visual Arts, named for Musa Mayer’s late father |
19. | U. of Michigan Museum of Art | Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch | Jonathan Tisch is co-chairman of the Loews Corporation and chief executive of Loews Hotels, in New York. Lizzie Tisch, a Michigan alumna, was a partner in the personalized-shopping business Suite 1521. | $2.8 million | support to enhance and develop exhibitions at the museum, whose central gallery will be renamed the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Apse |
20. | Virginia Union U. | Virginia B. Howerton | owner of ViGar Enterprises and Crimson Development Company; co-owner and vice-president of Winnar Enterprises, a management consultant company; consultant; and a 1965 Virginia Union alumna | $2.5 million | support for scholarships, historic preservation of campus buildings, and strategic growth |