Location: State College, Pennsylvania
Total endowment: $4.26 billion
Annual research expenditures: $854,815,000
When this institution of higher learning opened in 1855, it was called the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania with the goal of applying science to farming. Now Penn State has 20 separate campuses.
In 1963 the Hershey Trust Company gave its first of many donations, a cool $50 million. Later, the chocolate company based in Pennsylvania established the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
Penn State grad and founder of an oil and natural gas company, Terrence Pegula, made the school’s largest donation of $88 million. Donald Bellisario, grad, producer and TV series creator, gifted Penn State $30 million, along with his wife, Vivienne.