This book is for those wishing to make a major gift to an institution of higher education who are looking for an intellectual framework for deciding how much to give to which school, for which purposes, over what periods of time, or with which (if any) restrictions. Higher education fundraising has grown increasingly sophisticated, but higher education philanthropy has remained in large part an amateur exercise. A donor can give an institution any amount for any purpose at any time, but there are some subtleties concerning the gifts that are most effective in achieving the donors purpose. Some gifts cannot be accepted; an example would be gifts not available to underrepresented minorities. Other gifts may not be accepted because accepting the gift is prohibitively expensive. Higher education philanthropy can be viewed as a formal social exchange between an individual or family donor. The most common situation is for donors to make a gift and trust the institution's leadership to identify the schools needs and priorities. Other donors, those with an agenda to satisfy or those who may be categorized as social entrepreneurs, want to fund something that may not be a top priority for the school. In this situation, a donation may involve negotiation. Ultimately the process that works best for a donor depends on his or her individual interests and needs. One appendix describes additional resources for donors, and the second contains the interview protocol used to gather information for this report. (Contains 20 figures, 6 tables, and 60 references.) (SLD)