Mystery Donor Puts a Spotlight on Gifts That Are Often Ignored

In college fund raising, $5-million or $10-million donations don’t typically attract much attention. That has changed in the past few weeks, after a series of unsolicited $6-million and $7-million checks started arriving at colleges around the country, with instructions not to investigate who had given them.

Now colleges that couldn’t get more than a brief mention of a gift in the local press are fielding calls from ABC News, the BBC, and The New York Times.

The story has unfolded like a good mystery. There’s intrigue (Who is it? The same person each time?), dramatic tension (What if the money comes from nefarious sources?), and the question on every fund raiser’s mind (Could my college be next?).

Here’s what is known: At least 12 colleges, all but one of them public, have received $1.5-million to $10-million in the past two months, for a total of at least $60-million. Many of them, like Montclair State University, Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, and Southern Mississippi University, are relatively young or not very well known. Some are struggling financially in the face of state budget cuts. For some, the donation was their largest cash gift ever.

The money comes through an intermediary such as a bank, whose representatives are the only ones who know the donor’s identity’and they aren’t talking. The donor seems concerned with making a social impact, requesting that most of the gifts be used for scholarships for women and minority students, with an unrestricted portion to be applied toward the university’s greatest needs. Perhaps most intriguing: All of the colleges are led by women.

What isn’t known: Why the donor or donors chose those institutions, where the money comes from, why anonymity is so important, and whether more colleges or other nonprofit groups have also received these gifts.

Colleges and the public have seized on this feel-good story when most of the news coming from fund-raising offices has been far gloomier. The story has shed light on the tricky balance that fund raisers must strike between taking advantage of positive buzz from the news media and respecting a donor’s wishes to remain unidentified.

Checking Legal Issues

In the information age, anonymous donors are finding it more difficult to stay masked, says Katherina M. Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. The mystery donor could simply be taking extra precautions against having his or her identity revealed.

All the secrecy has certainly fueled the public’s interest. The Associated Press floated Oprah Winfrey and Leona Helmsley as the possible benefactors (their people denied it). Bloggers have speculated that it could be a disgraced Wall Street baron trying to dump some ill-gotten gains.

Colleges say it doesn’t matter, although some checked into whether the money had come from a legal source (they are comfortable that it did). What’s more important, they say, is that the money will do good things for students who really need it. ABC, which aired the piece on World News Tonight, dubbed the donors “recession angels.”

The State University of New York at Binghamton, which received $6-million for scholarships, has seen students struggle economically and recently lost several visiting scholars in a mass shooting at an immigration center near the campus. News of the gift has lifted spirits, said Lois B. DeFleur, the university’s president.

Michigan State University, which got two checks totaling $10-million, had planned to present the news first to its trustees but decided to go public sooner when news reports started appearing, says Robert Groves, vice president for university advancement. Within hours of putting out a news release, he had done a dozen media interviews.

Mr. Groves didn’t want the donor or donors to think Michigan State was trying to “smoke them out” or disrespect their wishes for anonymity, but he understood the news media’s intense interest in the whodunit angle. “Certainly our curiosity is piqued,” he says.

Sealed Lips

But the donor’s insistence on anonymity presents a conflict for development offices, which like to trumpet big gifts both to honor generous philanthropists and to inspire others to follow their example.

Lynette Marshall, executive director of the University of Iowa Foundation, which landed $7-million, declined to be interviewed by ABC. “It’s clear to me the donor wants this to remain anonymous,” she says.

She is concerned that the news media will eventually uncover the elusive philanthropist. “That would be a shame,” she says.

But after the media frenzy subsided, Ms. Marshall says, she kidded with staff members that the next time the university wants to publicize a big gift, maybe it should dangle a mystery.

Kathryn Masterson is a reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education.