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You know, donating money to Harvard is weird. They've got a $50 billion endowment. They have enough money to do anything they want. What good would donations do
by CobrastanJorji 3y ago
You know, donating money to Harvard is weird. They've got a $50 billion endowment. They have enough money to do anything they want. What good would donations do in the first place?
And yet, Harvard receives something like $500 million per year in donations. Why?
- elbear 3y agoMaybe rich people want to feel good that they've donated to a prestigious university.
- kevinventullo 3y agoMight make more sense to think of it less as a donation and more as buying fuzzy influence.
- wharvle 3y agoThis makes more sense when one recalls that a whole lot of powerful people, including and perhaps especially politicians, come from a handful of prestigious schools, and are surrounded by advisors and assistants largely from those same schools. [edit] and of course the real rabbit hole is private prep schools. Good luck becoming president in this century without attending one. Wonder what their donor lists look like.
- anonymouskimmer 3y ago> Good luck becoming president in this century without attending one. Bill Clinton made it last century, and Hillary almost made it this century. I don't think the odds are that stacked against public school attendees even now.
- wharvle 3y agoIt’s mostly a recent problem, oddly enough. Only one of the last nine big-two party candidates didn’t go to prep school (Hilary, as you mention). Typically more than half the primary candidates “prepped”, over the same period. Most VPs have, too, though it’s been less totally-captured than the big chair (and you’ve got edge cases like Harris who didn’t technically “prep” but had a pretty similar situation) Seems like damn well-stacked odds, considering fancy prep school kids are a small minority of all kids. But maybe this is just a multi-decade weird run of strange fortune, and not a persistent trend.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoI'm sure there are social factors both driving prep school graduates to run, and helping them stand out from the crowd. Outside of just family money. I do wonder if "prep" schools are recruiting more of the socially outstanding non-rich students than in previous years. Even so this can only have so much of an effect, as non-prep schools will always have valedictorians and social organizers regardless of who's pulled out beforehand.
- Vegenoid 3y agoOne reason (as indicated by these events) is to gain influence with the administration of one of the most influential universities in the world.
- low_tech_love 3y agoYou can always spend more money, especially at an academic institution, where the money spent is not directly tied to a concrete, specific product. The staff can always go to one more conference a year, or take one more sabbatical, or buy newer computers more frequently, hire more people (whether they are needed or not; takes some weight off seniors’ backs), organize more events, spend more with communication, outreach, build something, or improve existing buildings, create a new research group, raise some salaries, etc.
- ShamelessC 3y agoI don't think most of the options you listed are really going to put a dent in that figure.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoA lot of donation and endowment money is legally tied up, due to the original terms of each endowment, for specific purposes. So even though Harvard has $50 billion, it can't just spend that $50 billion on anything it wants. This is both why people keep donating to Harvard, and how Harvard keeps marketing a 'need' for more donations. Along with, of course, either naming rights, or as an incentive to accept their child into the school (previous research has shown the ability and/or willingness of families to donate does add to the likelihood of admission).