School Daze: Alumni Ante Up

According to the latest issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance, if you plan to endow a scholarship at your alma mater, prepare to dig a little deeper. For example, Duke raised the amount needed to fund a restricted scholarship (the kind that gives you some say over who receives the award, such as specifiying the student's field of study) from $100,000 to $250,000. Johns Hopkins raised their requirement from $20,000 to $100,000. A quick search on the web reveals that to endow a chair or professorship can easily exceed $2 million -- one endowed chair established at Harvard Law Schoool was funded with a $3 million gift. With costs rising, and the increased need of financial aid, colleges are looking to alumni and their major benefactors to foot more of the bill. With the higher donation level, many colleges will give you the option of spreading your donation over a period of five to ten years.

Leaving a Legacy, Large and Small

A variety of options are available to create legacy -- from private foundations to donor advised funds and supporting organizations. Each vehicle for donor-advised giving has its strengths and limitations, as well as a minimum investment threshold that may help you quickly narrow your options. But all of them have one thing in common: They help the 1.2 million charities in the United States.