Much harder to start a new successful college than put money in one that's already successful. It takes a very long time to build a successful academic institut

Much harder to start a new successful college than put money in one that's already successful. It takes a very long time to build a successful academic institution (Stanford is 136 years old, MIT 161, Harvard 385, etc.) There's also the prestige aspect. Stanford carries weight in elite circles, so more bragging rights for the Doerr family I guess. It's why many rich people keep throwing money towards elite universities with tens of billions of dollars in their endowments already.