Examples of colleges that have ~$15-30M endowments:
Bennington College
Colby-Sawyer
Southern NH
Big, “elite” universities are more likely to produce many rich alumni, some of whom are willing to donate large sums of money to their own alma maters. These gifts often are for specific purposes. For example, a few years ago, the Chairman and CEO of Morningstar, Inc. donated $25M to his alma mater, UChicago, to construct a new state of the art library building (http://mansueto.lib.uchicago.edu/overview.html)
What would happen at Bennington College if it suddenly was expected to manage a sum of money roughly equal to its current endowment? Bennington has no need for a library building to house 3.5M volumes (its Crossett Library holds fewer than 100K volumes). A $25M grant could cover approximately 77% of the tuition costs of all ~660 students currently enrolled in Bennington College, for one year. Would that use of the money result in better, more lasting effects than using it for a new library building at a major research university?