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Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

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Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#31

Post by Scoundreller »

ghaff wrote: post #12
fsckboy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, if she had finished the job and cured cancer, she could buy a Premier League team* (*cuz academics == soccer) There is a natural tendency to diminish money as a measure of anything good, but money really is the yardstick by which we jointly measure all things, trading off time with kids, family, travel, leisure against other priorities, and being rewarded by the rest of society for our contributions to wh…

Leaving aside the exact numbers, there are also ways in that appreciated assets can be donated, the gains are basically tax shielded, and an annuity based on an actuarial determined portion of the assets can be paid out. The details are more complicated than that of course.

Yeah, in Canada there are relatively huge tax benefits from donating appreciated assets: both foregoing the capital gains on the appreciation and getting a tax credit for the market value.

And on a big donation that the charity inevitably sells, the other shareholders pay the price when they get dumped on the market (but you still get the pre-sale valuation).

Aaaaand if you arrange to get family naming rights to the whole org, a building or faculty, the taxman still considers it a "no personal benefit" 100% eligible donation.

Normies donating employment income could only dream of that degree of escaped taxes. The tax benefits won't even cover the income taxes you paid at 6 figure incomes. Go to a dinner fundraiser and they're sure to exclude the dinner value from your charitable receipt.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#32

Post by stephencanon »

AlbertCory wrote: post #9

I told the university CS department that I wanted to endow a chair there. Not a professorship -- an actual chair, that you can sit in. They'd heard that joke before, unfortunately. I think they're missing a financial opportunity here :)

You can just stick a plaque on a chair. No one will stop you. My officemates and I had a set made for our office in the math department at Berkeley.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#33

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

This doesn't explain what "endowing a chair" means. How does this plump a donor's rep and ego?

Meanwhile, the entire college ecosystem is disgusting. I went to a top private university and will never give them a penny, for the way they treated both students and non-professor faculty.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#34

Post by ShadowBanThis01 »

dang wrote: post #2

Related: Ask HN: How to convince my parents to buy me a good chair? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585571 - April 2009 (7 comments) (I'm joking)

Also related: You don't convince someone to do something; you persuade him to do so. You convince people OF something.

Liberal arts FTW.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#35

Post by function_seven »

ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #34
dang wrote: post #2

Related: Ask HN: How to convince my parents to buy me a good chair? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585571 - April 2009 (7 comments) (I'm joking)

Also related: You don't convince someone to do something; you persuade him to do so. You convince people OF something. Liberal arts FTW.

"I convinced Timmy to set off that stink bomb" is shorthand for "I convinced Timmy that it was a good idea to set off that stink bomb".

It works okay.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#37

Post by quickthrower2 »

fsckboy wrote: post #13
quickthrower2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the most wealthy are not paying 50% income tax on their annual increase in net wealth (see what I did there)? When there are so many ways to avoid it.

income is realized capital gains, not unrealized, and "increase in net wealth" doesn't mean anything. see what I did there? used the words for what they mean.

Exactly my point! Rich people can control how much income their investments pay, and ideally they aim for growth not income which can compound forever without paying any tax. Because they are rich they have no need to sell most of the investments and so can defer paying tax forever. On the other hand poor people have no tax-free compounding subsidy and have to pay tax on every hour of labour they do.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#38

Post by ggm »

flybrand wrote: post #27
ggm wrote: post #14

My family endowed a (small) prize in memory of our academic parents. Universities overwhelmingly prefer untied donations, but some significant "God, not on sports, please" incidents have led to suspicion of how they think donors feel about the spending. (The prize is to the most deserving student irrespective of academic status, across arts/architecture and computer science and from feedback has been a godsend to som…

My grandparents gave an award for pulp and paper science that is still given out. It’s tiny now, but a full ride for the student. At one point they - the school - were very appreciative, but their enthusiasm has dwindled quite a bit.

There's a point in the life of any endowment below the gigantic where it's rate of "return" (judged in the wide, not just financially) feels to drop below the hassle of maintaining it. I think some economies have laws against "in perpetuity" finances.

Anthony Trollope based "the warden" around the consequences of a bequest in medaevil times carried into Victorian English Anglican church politics.

If the student(s) still value it, I think it's doing its job. Good on your grandparents!

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#39

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

TheAtomic wrote: post #3

I went to a graduation a few years ago at Carnegie Mellon. Some hedge fund guy was making his biggest donation yet and gave the commencement speech. It was endlessly about him and the new building to be named after him and how he was about to own an NFL football team. There was a Nobel Prize winner seated next to him on stage. I don't think she got to say anything, but was recognized for her work in cancer research.…

I've been dreaming about georgetown/nyu/nw for a tax LLM but the cost of admission is too darn high.

Looks to me unless I already have that kind of money, there is no way I can get admission there. Oh well. That's capitalism for you I guess

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#40

Post by dismalpedigree »

function_seven wrote: post #35
ShadowBanThis01 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also related: You don't convince someone to do something; you persuade him to do so. You convince people OF something. Liberal arts FTW.

"I convinced Timmy to set off that stink bomb" is shorthand for "I convinced Timmy that it was a good idea to set off that stink bomb". It works okay.

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