<p>Anyone have any idea what all these schools have in common? There must be a reason these particular schools were chosen.</p>
<p>Toledo, I was wondering that also and I think if someone can figure that out that will be a big clue. The only thing I have figured out is that the bigger the school was the more money they got.</p>
<p>How about: there is a child, niece or nephew at each. That should be easy to track down. Just take all the tax returns for parents of students at the schools, and look backwards one generation for matching dependents’ SSNs to find a common grandparent. All it takes is IRS computer access; what’s the big deal? ;)</p>
<p>There may be more than one donor.</p>
<p>I think this is 100% wonderful for the recipients, and frankly I don’t think it matters whether the money came from a drug-lord or a crooked banker.</p>
<p>Some might say the glass is half full (good news, but probably with a catch). Some might say the glass is half empty (possibly from a source that needs to remain hidden due to illegality). I prefer to look at this as being a full glass (100% good news). The glass was just a little small to begin with.</p>
<p>Well God bless them!- they must be reading the CC financial aid/scholarships forums!</p>
<p>Little Mother, you’d think the donor or donors used a donor-advised fund, but if so, why would one of the colleges think it necessary to find out whether the money came from criminal sources? Colleges surely must be used to dealing with donor-advised funds.</p>
<p>I don’t know who did it but i’m glad that they did so.</p>
<p>On WOrld news tonight they said the one common denominator among the recipients was that they are all Universities run by women. Hmm, another school in New Jersey also a recpient, also with a female president. </p>
<p>What are the female programs like at the other Universities?
My money is on Oprah as the donor. </p>
<p>ttp://<a href=“Montclair State University receives anonymous $5 million donation - nj.com”>www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2009/04/5_million_donated_to_montclair.html</a></p>
<p>An unnamed donor bequeathed $5 million to Montclair State University last week, the largest anonymous donation to ever be given to the school, officials said Wednesday.</p>
<p>“To say that we are immensely grateful for this kindness would entirely understate the matter,” said university President Susan A. Cole in the release. “Scholarship funds are absolutely critical to the mission of the university, and we never have enough scholarships to meet the need of deserving students.”
The donor designated $4 million of the donation to be used for scholarships for women and minorities. University spokeswoman Paula Maliandi said the funds can be utilized as early as for the 2009-10 school year.</p>
<p>The other $1 million were not designated for any particular use, and the university is free to use the funds for whatever use it needs necessary.</p>
<p>“There is a lot of need,” said Maliandi.</p>
<p>In a message sent to the donor through a third-party representative, Cole thanked the donor, writing that about one third of Montclair State students come from families with incomes below $50,000.</p>
<p>MSNBC identifies the Md college as Univ of Maryland College Park but what I’ve read is that it’s actually Univ of Maryland University College.</p>
<p>I think it’s a wonderful gift.</p>
<p>Your right, it wasn’t UMD College park but University of M University College. The woman they interviewed from the Maryland school is not from college park.</p>
<p>Hmmm, samiamy, that is interesting about the all women presidents. I mentioned earlier that Kalamazoo College received $1 million in this same way, even though they haven’t been mentioned in the news. The president of K College is a woman and they requested it be for women and minorities.</p>
<p>Here is the full press release. I wonder why they haven’t been mentioned in national news.
Kalamazoo College has received a $1 million gift to be used for student financial aid. The donor designated the contribution to scholarships for women and minority students, but leaves final awarding of the scholarships up to College officials. The donor is also anonymousto the extent that the individual went through a third party to deliver the funds. We have no idea who the person is, said Victoria Gorrell, vice president for college advancement, but we are so grateful that he or she recognized that many students and families might be struggling in the current economy. Gorrell said a representative from an out-of-state bank called in late March to announce the gift on the donors behalf. On April 2 the College received a cashiers check for $1 million along with a letter that states, in part: It is hoped that this will make a substantial difference to your students during these challenging times, enabling a more confident, sharper focus on their studies with improved career and life prospects. Added Gorrell: We have no idea what motivated the donor to make this extraordinary gift, but it will benefit many students who are determined to attain the outstanding liberal arts education ‘K’ offers.</p>
<p>See! We solved it! What a smart bunch we have here on cc.</p>
<p>Interesting. Oh well, I guess Wabash isn’t going to receive money from this donor.</p>
<p>What ACT OF KINDNESS! I’m so happy for the schools and the students that will be attending the benefited universities. THANKS DONORS!!!</p>
<p>Absolute act of kindness! The students and the schools could really benefit from this helping hand!! Most generous!</p>
<p>There are lots of ways for a gift to come through truly anonymously:</p>
<p>Our charter school regularly gets gifts via Schwab or Fidelity’s charitable gift funds, and the checks sometimes come without any letter accompanying them identifying the donor. Luckily most of the time the donor has told us to expect a check, but we have resorted to publishing a note in the newsletter asking who we can thank because the check simply says “Fidelity”.</p>
<p>We also get unexpectedly anonymous gifts through stock donations, which show up in our brokerage account with no information about the donor. You know that you got 500 shares of Starbucks stock on a certain date. That’s it.</p>
<p>We also get donations that come through lawyer’s trust accounts, though in our case they have always been accompanied by a letter identifying the donor. </p>
<p>Our gifts are a lot smaller than the ones referenced in this article, but given the hours I’ve spent trying to track down mystery donors who didn’t intend to be mysterious, I don’t doubt that it is perfectly possible to make donations, even large ones, anonymously.</p>
<p>Amazing…and thoughtful.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang - </p>
<p>There’s no law that I know of that prevents an individual from having a donor-advised fund as long as all terms are met. I’m not a financial advisor, but I would hazard a guess that not many donor-advised funds have an ethics disclosure in their terms. After all, didn’t those folks who dealt with insider trading end up with ill-gotten gains? Yet, they weren’t found out until much later.</p>
<p>Sure, but the college would know that the organization that handles the donor-advised fund wouldn’t reveal the anonymous donor’s name, so it wouldn’t be worthwhile trying.</p>