While many will remember 2023 as a tumultuous year for the economy as well as a new Israel-Hamas conflict that ultimately resulted in the resignation of top university presidents, it will also be remembered as a record-breaking year for mega donations.
Stony Brook University received a $500 million gift for its endowment which was matched by the $500 million gift received by McPherson College, a small private liberal arts college in Kansas with less than 1,000 students. In the case of McPherson, this gift follows a similar $500 million gift received in 2022. The result of these gifts is that McPherson now suddenly has a much larger endowment than any other private college with a similarly small student enrollment.
Other large gifts included $400 million pledged to Cal Tech and a $300 million unrestricted gift to Harvard that resulted in the renaming of the university’s graduate school of arts and sciences.
