Warnings about the risks posed by technology have been growing louder and more urgent. But an initiative launched last month imagines a more hopeful future in which technologists advance the public interest. Who’s behind it, and what’s the plan?
Read MoreThe latest installment in the higher ed artificial intelligence gold rush finds a corporate funder backing new research on health and AI. Other campus donors will likely follow, even as some experts warn that this new technology could exacerbate health inequities.
Read MoreThanks in part to donor dollars, Los Angeles, according to the New York Times, now has America’s most exciting arts scene. One overlooked driver of the city’s arts boom is alumni support for the arts at universities across the region, including Pomona College.
Read MoreDriven by a potent mix of nostalgia, market demand and the real value of an immersive education, some donors remain enamored with the residential college experience. We dig into the latest big gift to ensure that students can enjoy life on the quad
Read MoreIt may sound counter-intuitive at first, but some of the biggest patrons for university arts initiatives hail from the world of high finance. A closer look at a $100 million gift to Harvard reveals some conceptual and practical reasons for this.
Read MoreWhile the impulse of funders to bankroll that next medical breakthrough is as strong as ever, growing health disparities help to explain a surge in giving for campus public health initiatives. We dig into the latest big gift in this burgeoning field.
Read MoreThe healthcare sector plays a huge role in local economies and American life broadly. Equipped with donor dollars, more universities are looking to get in on the action by creating or expanding health schools. A case in point is a recent big gift to Loyola in Chicago.
Read MoreA trustee and major donor to Gettysburg College resigned after a 38-year-old photo emerged of him dressed as a television character sporting a Nazi armband. With donors facing new scrutiny on highly charged college campuses, should alumni think twice before cutting that next big check?
Read MoreWhile donors are giving big to provide disadvantaged students access to elite colleges, the real work often begins once the student arrives on campus. A big gift to an Ivy League school will scale a successful initiative to help first-gen students adjust to college life.
Read MoreShould a donor have a say in a university's hiring decisions and research priorities? While the answer to this question might seem obvious, St. Louis University has pushed aside criticisms of a $50 million strings-attached gift from a wealthy libertarian benefactor.
Read MoreA gift to the University of Florida's law school encapsulates three of the big themes reshaping higher ed: increasingly specialized giving, ambitious multi-billion dollar fundraising campaigns, and the emergence of previously under-the-radar alumni mega-givers.
Read MoreA recent $20 million gift from the Windgate Foundation to the University of Central Arkansas—the largest in the school’s 111-year history—is another reminder of the stronger philanthropic ecosystems that are emerging in the South.
Read MoreThe University of Virginia (UVA) recently netted a $120 million gift—the largest in its 200-year history—for a school of data science. What’s not to love? Quite a bit, it seems, judging by criticisms of the donation.
Read MoreFewer than half of all students who start community college finish. In Mississippi, the Woodward Hines Education Foundation sees honor societies as one key to changing that. It’s also connecting schools in the state to a national community college network.
Read MoreA $20 million gift seeks to increase accessibility for underrepresented and first-generation students to Duke’s School of the Environment. It comes at a moment when there’s growing acknowledgement that green groups must do more to diversify their ranks in an era of rapid demographic change.
Read MoreCommunity colleges serve almost half of the country's college students yet receive a shockingly small percentage of philanthropic support. A growing body of research on how these students can go on to succeed at elite institutions hopes to change the narrative.
Read MoreHistoric levels of donor support for higher education has included a surge in big gifts for the liberal arts. We dig into an instructive campaign from a mid-tier public university turning to private dollars as state support lags.
Read MoreThe University of Michigan is wrapping up a historic fundraising campaign that’s pulled in $5 billion and counting. Of the many mega-gifts it received, we dig into one that is solely earmarked for financial aid and reflects growing donor concern around issues of affordability.
Read MoreWith stresses and shocks to U.S. society growing, and government in retreat in many places, a growing range of funders is keen to bolster civil society’s role in promoting resilience. We look at a unique effort along these lines under way in Arizona.
Read MoreA major donation to UT Austin’s business school provides an illuminating look into how donors hailing from the world of finance perceive ideas like “value” and “impact,” concepts which aren’t nearly as clear cut to these givers as you might think.
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