The Most Major of Major Gifts

Transformational gifts are fast becoming nonprofits’ equivalent of the Holy Grail. It seems as though not a week passes without news of another extraordinary gift delivered to the doorstep of one of America’s million-plus nonprofit organizations.

In decades past, such gifts most often were directed to a select few institutions of higher education. Harvard, Yale and Princeton, to name a few, were among the beneficiaries. The gifts went toward general college funds, building funds or just toward a university’s endowment.