ABSTRACT
Starting in the 17th with the founding of colleges in the American colonies, presidents and trustees of modern colleges and universities continue to rely on and pursue philanthropic gifts. Donors, ranging from annual alumni contributions to major gifts from affluent families, foundations and corporations, provide American higher education with the renewing and expanding source of money for innovation, experimentation, and renewal. American philanthropy and its nonprofit sector, including colleges and universities, have no counterpart elsewhere in the world. Those resources do bring responsibilities as academic institutions must be vigilant in making certain that philanthropy is appropriate for institutional mission, goals, and conduct. An important change in recent decades is that donors who once gave directly to colleges and universities increasingly adopt strategies to focus less on institutional support and more on solving problems in health and social justice across the national landscape.
