Giving Compass' Take:

• Fortune magazine explores how philanthropy to U.S. colleges and universities is growing, while financing from other sources (such as the federal and state governments) is drying up.

• While it's a good sign that wealthy individuals are doling out big gifts to higher education, is the trend sustainable? How can we make sure that colleges thrive, while also lowering costs for students?

• Here's a more comprehensive guide on funding higher education.

Blackstone chief Stephen Schwarzman’s recent eye-popping gift creating MIT’s new $1 billion College of Computing is a not only a transformational contribution to a stellar institution, but an endorsement of the importance of U.S. higher education to our country’s global competitiveness.

It also signals a shift in how higher education institutions can survive in our new political and cultural climate.

Schwarzman’s enthusiasm is countered by an assault on university endowments, nationally by the Republican Party, and in fiscally starved states, by local Democratic parties. Schools are threatened by increasingly discouraging immigration policies. State spending on public universities, while recently inching higher, remains highly uncertain. And higher education has been losing the traditional support of major philanthropic foundations. The Ford Foundation, for instance, announced this summer that it had dropped all higher education strategic priorities as part of its mission.

Fortunately, Schwarzman is not alone in making huge investments in American higher education. Since 1967, wealthy individuals have donated over 200 gifts of $100 million or more to higher education.

These current donors are different from past philanthropists in important ways.

First, these donors tend to be business builders, with most of them representing first-generation entrepreneurial wealth. Schwarzman is joined by other such builders who have given $100 million or more to higher education, including Michael Bloomberg, Phil Knight, Bill Gates, John Paulson, Michael Dell, and Ken Langone. All of these men are examples of those who achieved the American dream and wanted to give back.

Second, these donors tend to give while they live rather than defer to late life or posthumous gifts.

Read the full article about how megadonors can help save higher ed by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld at fortune.com.