Okay, poorly worded on my part. I was thinking more in line with Gates leaving everything to the Gates Foundation.

My brain can't reconcile why someone would want to donate to something that already takes money from people in return for services. Kinda like the onion half-headline: "Man Has Alarming Level Of Pride In Institution That Left Him $50,000 In Debt."

I don't know MIT's specific financial situation, but my impression was that, while tuition covers a great many things such as salaries and programs, every academic institution is dependent on generous endowments in order to pursue large capital projects and initiatives. Hence, why many stadiums are named after their donors.

Remember that some of those donations go to scholarships/etc so that there may be a reason for reciprocity. (That being said-it doesn't really seem to exist in Australia. I've never been contacted by my old university (a Gof8) and asked for donations.

There's some in Australia who do. UWA telephones & writes to me every year for donations to their Alumni fund - this year they even invited past students to a cocktail party called "A Celebration Of Giving". I don't donate anymore but did once in the past, specifically because the funds went towards scholarships.

Go dedicate a year to read about a small fraction of MIT's contributions to the world, and then post an update to your comment. We aren't talking about ITT or U of Phoenix here.