Tao Tan speculates on why Columbia might not be as special as it thinks:
It’s amazing that the Greene Foundation would pony up $200M. Last
year’s IRS 990 reflected $80M in assets (pdf):If I had to guess, my guess would be that this is the Greene
Foundation’s close-to-last hurrah. There’s been a philanthropic
philosophy ever since the 1950s and 1960s that Greene probably
subscribes to that says a Foundation has to spend out all its assets
within a generation so the Foundation keeps within the original
philanthropher’s vision. The Olin Foundation closed this year for that
very reason.