MIT Gets $140M Pledge from Anonymous Donor
It would be interesting to compare the utility of one large $100 million+ grant to an institution like MIT, Yale or Harvard that is already well-endowed, compared to a hundred different million dollar grants to institutions across the USA or the world, where the money might arguably be more effectively used or sorely needed.<p>The counterpoint would be that the money could support fundamental research that eventually results in a much larger payoff to the world at large, but I&#x27;m not convinced that this outweighs the benefits of funding hundreds, or even thousands of students&#x2F;scientists in less prominent schools who might go on to make such discoveries themselves.<p>Of course, all this assumes that donor&#x27;s primary aim is to make the largest possible impact, when in all likelihood it&#x27;s motivated more by an affinity for the school, or in the case of other donors, prestige from having their name on the walls.