Right but presumably some of the money in the existing budget for said thing can be moved around.  So, say you donate $10 to Professor X&#x27;s classroom and his existing budget is $50.  You bumped it to $60.  They can just take $10 from the existing budget and put it elsewhere.  Your $10 still goes to that class, and the total goes back to $50. What you really want to know is whether the budget has increased by the amount you and others earmarked, year over year.  I doubt that level of reporting is given by schools or even requested by donors.  We just trust or assume that &quot;earmarked&quot; means the budget increased.