| 1. | Brandeis U. | Rosaline Cohn and Marcia Cohn | longtime Brandeis donor who died in 2010 at age 97 (Rosaline Cohn); daughter of Rosaline and Jacob Cohn; her father owned the Continental Coffee Company, which was sold to Sysco in 1988 (Marcia Cohn, who died in 2015) | $50 million (bequest) | addition to the Jacob and Rosaline Cohn Endowed Scholarship and Fellowship Fund |
| 2. | Princeton U. | Robert H. Taylor | 1930 Princeton alumnus and chair of the Friends of Princeton Library from 1954 to 1980; grandson of John Emory Andrus, who owned the Arlington Chemical Company and invested in railroads and utilities; before his death, in 1985, Mr. Taylor set up a trust to benefit Princeton following the death of his niece, in 2016 | $42 million (final payment of bequest) | creation of an endowed post for Princeton’s university librarian; establishment of the position of curator of the Robert H. Taylor Collection at Firestone Library; other support for Princeton’s library and its special collections, as well as the university’s art museum, English department, and other university-determined priorities |
| 3. | Medical College of Wisconsin | Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern family and the Kern Family Foundation | founder and retired chairman of Generac Power Systems, a manufacturer of portable generators in Waukesha, Wis. (Mr. Kern) | $37.8-million | creation of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education |
| 4. | Bucknell U. | Kenneth and Elaine Langone | co-founder of the Home Depot retail chain and a 1957 alumnus (Mr. Langone) | $30 million (pledge) | support for financial aid |
| 5. | National U. system | T. Denny Sanford | chairman of United National Corporation, the holding company for First Premier Bank/Premier Bankcard | $28 million (pledge) | expansion of three programs to foster good will: Sanford Inspire, Sanford Harmony, and the Sanford Institute of Philanthropy |
| 6. | Colby College | Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund (Andrew Davis) | president of Davis Selected Advisers, manager of the financial firm’s real-estate fund, and a 1985 Colby graduate who studied economics | $25 million | creation of DavisConnects, a program that will provide the money for every Colby student to spend time abroad |
| 6. | St. Lawrence U. | Sarah E. Johnson and her parents, Ann Johnson and Charles B. Johnson | film producer who graduated from St. Lawrence in 1982 and is a university trustee and a co-chair of its fund-raising campaign (Sarah Johnson); retired chairman and president of Franklin Templeton Investments (Charles B. Johnson); retired psychiatrist (Ann Johnson) | $25 million | unrestricted use |
| 8. | U. of Pennsylvania, Basser Research Center for BRCA | Jon and Mindy Gray | global head of real estate at Blackstone, an investment firm (Mr. Gray) | $21 million | support for research, clinical trials, and educational outreach for patients with breast, ovarian, pancreatic, and other cancers |
| 9. | Duke U. | David Rubenstein | co-founder and co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, and chair of Duke’s Board of Trustees | $20 million | endowment for the new David M. Rubenstein Scholars Program, which gives full-cost scholarships for exceptional first-generation, low-income students |
| 9. | Vanderbilt U. | Robin Ingram Patton, John Ingram, and Orrin Ingram, in honor of their late father, E. Bronson Ingram | longtime member of Vanderbilt’s Board of Trust and its leader from 1991 to 1995, the year he died (E. Bronson Ingram); chairman of Ingram Industries, a manufacturing company in Nashville, who earned an M.B.A. from Vanderbilt in 1986 and serves on its Board of Trust (John Ingram); president and chief executive of Ingram Industries, who earned a bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt in 1982 (Orrin Ingram) | $20 million | gift to name a new residential college for Bronson Ingram |
| 9. | Washington U. in St. Louis | John F. McDonnell | retired chairman of the board of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, who oversaw its merger with Boeing in 1997, recipient of an M.B.A. at Washington University, and a university life trustee | $20 million (pledge of matching funds) | scholarships and fellowships |
| 12. | U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, College of Arts & Sciences | Jim Shuford, Stephen Shuford, and Dorothy Shuford Lanier, siblings | chief executive of STM Industries, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chapel Hill in 1988 and 1992 (Jim Shuford); chief executive of Shurtape Technologies, who earned an M.B.A. from Chapel Hill in 1997 (Stephen Shuford); fashion designer and 1993 graduate of the university (Ms. Lanier) | $18 million | support for new faculty fellows, entrepreneurs-in-residence, student internships, and a lecture series, and endowment of the executive-director and internship-director positions in the undergraduate entrepreneurship program |
| 13. | Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine | Anonymous | n/a | $15 million | support for construction of a new health-sciences building |
| 13. | Maryville College | Dan and Elaine McGill | an economist and professor of life insurance who taught on several campuses, including the Universities of Tennessee at Knoxville, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Pennsylvania, and a 1940 alumnus of Maryville who was a member and chair of its Board of Directors (Mr. McGill, who died in 2013); Ms. McGill died in July 2016 | $15 million (bequest) | $14 million to endow scholarships; $1 million in support of Anderson Hall, the oldest building on the campus |
| 13. | U. of Southern California | Ofer and Shelly Nemirovsky | senior adviser at HarbourVest, a private-equity firm in Boston (Mr. Nemirovsky); 1985 alumna of USC with a bachelor’s degree in English and a member of the university’s Board of Trustees (Ms. Nemirovsky) | $15 million | endowment for a residential college at USC Village, to be named for the donors |
| 16. | U. of Central Oklahoma athletic department | Anonymous | n/a | $13.5 million | support for construction of a new baseball stadium and creation of a scholarship fund for student-athletes |
| 17. | U. of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences | John and Charlene Kopchick | molecular endocrinologist and a professor at Ohio University who received his Ph.D. from the UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1980 (Mr. Kopchick); assistant dean of students for campus involvement at Ohio University (Ms. Kopchick) | $10.5 million | endowment for student fellowships, and support for a research symposium and research awards to students and their faculty mentors |
| 18. | Stonehill College | Leo Meehan and the company he leads, W.B. Mason | president of the office-supply company W.B. Mason, a 1975 Stonehill alumnus, and a member of its Board of Trustees. | $10 million | support for construction of a building for the newly established School of Business, which will be named for the donor |
| 18. | Vanderbilt U. | Anonymous | n/a | $10 million | establishment of living-learning communities in the campus’s residential colleges |
| 18. | Washington U. in St. Louis, School of Medicine | Harry Edison Foundation (Andrew Newman) | great-nephew of Harry Edison, who co-founded the Edison Brothers Stores, a chain that sold apparel and shoes, and a member of Washington University’s Board of Trustees (Mr. Newman) | $10 million | support for research programs at the newly named Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology |