Total donations of the top ten equal $1.222 Billion
or $122MM on average.
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/education/2015/07/13/um-gift-zell-family-foundation/30069691/
Mr. Larry Page, stand up and be counted! 
With all those donations to Business school, it is probably one of the 5 wealthiest business programs…housed in the most expensive Business school facility!
I still don’t understand why Page hasn’t made a large donation to the school.
He is young. Most wealthy alums begin giving back to their alma mater in their 50s. I have no doubt that Page will give back to Michigan (and Stanford) in the future.
https://philanthropy.com/article/Google-CEO-Larry-Page-Gave/153353
He ain’t all bad. 
For better or worse, many people do not give back to their schools and direct money to causes more meaningful to them (or where they think their money could do more good).
The University has a 10 billion dollar endowment. I wouldn’t give them anything even if I was a billionaire, they don’t need any more money.
“The University has a 10 billion dollar endowment. I wouldn’t give them anything even if I was a billionaire, they don’t need any more money.”
That 10 billion has to feed a lot of mouths. I think the endowment is around #8 in absolute terms, but is around #35 (out of top 100 or so) in per capita size. The annual budget is still heavily dependent on tuition, and tuition has been soaring as the state has cut funding. To that extent, Michigan can’t bid/pay for the absolute best as can its nominal peers. You may have a lot of personal reasons for not giving to Michigan and I wouldn’t dream of questioning any of them, but the institution being sufficiently wealthy shouldn’t be in your top 10. The law and b-schools are in decent shape but in consequence receive almost no state support (something around 4% of total budget is state money), but almost every other unit is underfunded. In fact, the capital budget is roughly $500MM/year but receives on average on $25MM a year. Were it not for guys like Zell and Ross, the university’s infrastructure would be crumbling. Send a check today.
Here is a webcam for the new bio building: http://www.umaec.umich.edu/projects/major-projects/biological-science-building/web-camera/
That building will replace, in part, a building which is roughly 100 years old. The new building will cost $260,000,000. As I understand it, the new building has attracted $0 in state funding. Yet another reason to send in your check today
The fact that they can afford to build it says no need to send a check in.
I think they spent 15 years accumulating reserves…probably in part based on tuition increases during periods of derisory state support. Clearly, a donor funded build would have reduced the time students spent in a substandard structure whilst paying higher tuition to help fund an otherwise underfunded capital budget.
blue85, in absolute terms, among single-campus universities, Michigan’s endowment is #6 or #7. In relative terms (on a per capita basis), among research universities (not including LACs), Michigan is #21. But since 19 of the 20 universities ahead of it using this metric as much smaller (losing the economies of scale battle) and private (no state funding of their own), Michigan is better off than many of them.
That being said, with the exception of 7 or 8 universities, all other universities (Michigan included), regardless of the size of their endowment (and I am including schools like Columbia, Northwestern and Penn, that have similar endowments), will benefit greatly from a significant boost to their endowment.
The magic number is roughly $750,000-1,000,000/student depending on the size of the university (economies of scale should be factored in). Michigan currently stands at $250,000/student ($400,000 if you include state funding). Ideally, Michigan’s endowment should be in the $30 billion range.
I’m waiting for @bearcats to donate a building.
sorry to be a debbie downer, but to acquire that much wealth, unless you win a $300 million lotto, you HAVE to exploit others in the process. That they give a fraction of it back to their alma mater and get a tax write off does not atone for all that. I get the feeling some on this thread would say phil knight is upstanding for donating some trifle to oregon, never mind that his loot came from sweatshops where the workers made 10 cents an hour
as to why some don’t donate at all, well they are possibly just acting in character and being greedy fuckwards as usual, or they decide UM is quite wealthy enough as is…which seems out of character since in their personal life, no amount of wealth will be too much
Vlad,
tell that to the out of staters who work hard to get accepted and then have no way to attend
@blue85
guys like ross are why the state has no tax funds to spend on colleges. Well, that’s part of the reason, the other being that even when granholm was in charge and before the great recession, funding was gutted because the uneducated voters do not care about education. That’s their prerogative, but what chaps my ass about it is they get to vote on UM’s regents. This is my #1 reason for wanting to privatize.
I’ll never be close to a top 10 donor, perhaps not even top 10,000, but I give the university something every year out of gratitude for the outstanding education I received there. Well, and for the great time I had there, too. Yes, in many ways it’s a wealthy institution, but money is still a constraint. I’d like to see the endowment grow to the point they can meet full need for OOS students and make all FA awards loan-free. Whether it will get there in my lifetime, I don’t know.
They have schools in their own states they can attend.
If someone with a lot of money wants to donate their money to a good cause to help society, there’s much better places to donate it than any university.
There is no better investment than in education. It sets you free. While there are numerous ways to to do so, choosing to invest in a University is certainly a viable way.
“If someone with a lot of money wants to donate their money to a good cause to help society, there’s much better places to donate it than any university.”
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this comment actually inverts reality completely: intellectual capital is the post-industrial equivalent of the machine tool; every post on this board is using technology spun out of various universities as is probably true of many of the components in the computers used by each user;
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universities promote law/justice/equality which improves quality of life; pharmacy schools build new drugs; medical schools build new medical devices (a speciality of UM); engineers at UM have helped to build much of the infrastructure of the web and receive 30-40 patents/year; authors and musicians at UM and other schools write books and compose symphonies/quartets; the list is nearly endless, but the most important thing on the list is the roster of students who graduate and make their own contributions to society away from the campus; thousands of Michigan graduates are improving the world in some way, however small;
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the universities capital budget over the last 10 years has been $500,000,000/year and the state’s contribution has averaged $25,000,000/year; as a consequence of that funding deficit, I can absolutely guarantee that during your time at UM you sat in at least one – and probably more – donor funded buildings;
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While Michigan is fairly competitive on compensation, it doesn’t compete with private schools; that deficit is being closed with endowed chairs;
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While Michigan is working to meet out of state need and in state need for students, there is a long way to go;
Moving society forward entails taking risks and making investments. Universities see the long game and are uniquely qualified to take those risks and make investments in the areas which will provide the most intellectual and social leverage. Some of those investments take years to reach maturity and to offer a payout. Michigan is well suited to engage in these processes, as evidenced by its institutional success in dozens of domains.
There are fewer better investments than in creating the foundation for tomorrow’s technological advances and in creating tomorrow’s leadership.