At one point in time, Williams College (ranked at #36 on the list of American universities.) was about to go under. It was Amherst College that was thought to take over its place. Luckily both colleges remained successful. A large part of Amherst’s success is due to the fact that 56.4 percent of Amherst graduates give back to the school in any way the can.
In 2013, an in–house fundraising campaign made over $502 million over a five year period. During that period, two anonymous donations were made, one of $100 million and $25 million.
Indiana University: $2.385 Billion
According to the U.S. News & World Report list of top American universities, Indiana University is #89 on the list. The university has a total of nine campuses that stretch out to be 3,640 acres throughout the state of Indiana.
The main campus, IU–Bloomington consists of multiple top-ranking programs such as the Jacobs School of Music, and the Kelley School of Business. The program got its name from a 1997 donation of $23 million by Steak n’ Shake C.E.O, E.W. Kelley.
Carnegie Mellon University: $2.377 Billion
In the age of the post–Civil War industrial era, like many wealthy people, Andrew Carnegie sought to create an institution as part of a philanthropic effort. And thus the institution, Carnegie Technical School, was created. In 1965 the schools partnered with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. The enthusiastic research culture of both schools was a success and the university is now ranked the 25th best in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense supply up to about half of the annual budget to the university. Of course, a big source of wealth comes from private donors who embrace the schools' work. The largest donation ever made was when William S. Dietrich gave $265 million in 2011.
Pomona College: $2.257 Billion
A school with quite a grueling admission process and often gets compared often to Ivy League colleges. Pomona College is one part of a much grander system that includes the exclusively female campus, Scripps College, and Claremont McKenna College, both founded by Donald McKenna, the original founding benefactor.
In recent years Pomona College has received numerous generous gifts like the $25 million donations from entrepreneur Rick Sontag in 2015, followed by $1 million from the Fletcher Jones Foundation.
The University of Rochester : $2.197 Billion
The University of Rochester is made up of 158 buildings (six schools!) Founded in 1850, the university is distinguished for its many programs, most prominently, their science, medicine and music programs. As a whole, it ranks s the 79th–best college in the world.
Kaplan/Newsweek recently dubbed The Eastman School of Music as the “Hottest School for Music.” The school also has some groundbreaking faculties such as The Institute of Optics - the first school of its kind. In addition, Rochester’s medical program and hospital, the Strong Health System, has the single biggest employer of health workers in the area.