This makes no sense to me. If I were ran a university and wanted a good story to tell my donors, I would tell them that I want to spend $X million dollars on h

This makes no sense to me. If I were ran a university and wanted a good story to tell my donors, I would tell them that I want to spend $X million dollars on hiring professors, improving undergraduate education, offering financial aid, reducing tuition, building genuinely useful buildings, etc. I would also want to optimize the actual bottom line, not the tax-free donation revenue earned for the hell of it. There would be absolutely no need to spend money on useless things just to say I spent it.