Scientific research at elite Universities is largely funded by grants. Research grants even subsidize education at some places. So reducing donations to the U

Scientific research at elite Universities is largely funded by grants. Research grants even subsidize education at some places. So reducing donations to the University is not likely to have a huge impact on research (at least in my field - biomedicine). If you want to donate to research, a better bet is to donate to one of the research foundations that disseminate grants to universities, and even better, to a foundation that restricts the amount of the funding that can be applied to administrative costs (which are often as much as 40% of the amount funded).