Last year was a good one for donations to higher education in general, and to Stanford in particular. An annual survey by the Council for Aid to Education of 1,005 colleges and universities revealed that they raised $25.6 billion in 2005. Stanford topped the list with nearly $603.6 million. The other two universities that passed the half-billion mark were the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with $595.2 million, and Harvard, with $589.9 million.
