All gave multimillion-dollar gifts to the funds Mr. Ickes directed in 2004.

At the same time employees would read in the Staff News of multimillion-dollar gifts.

These multimillion-dollar gifts have been made since John Brademas became the university's president in 1981 and brought its fund raising to $95 million last year, from $29 million in 1980.

Now it is the beneficiaries of their multimillion-dollar gifts, some of them modest institutions of little renown, that stand to be transformed.

The University of Nebraska and the Chemical Heritage Foundation, in Philadelphia, also expect to get more than $100 million each, while a number of other institutions will also get multimillion-dollar gifts.

The shares made the Othmers rich many years ago, and during their lives they had quietly made a number of multimillion-dollar gifts.

That measure produced multimillion-dollar gifts, according to tax and fund-raising experts, who estimate the lost tax revenue as being in the billions.

Unlike their big-name cousins, few community colleges have wealthy alumni who can swoop in with multimillion-dollar gifts.

"She has to feel there are alumni around who will give multimillion-dollar gifts," Mr. Field said.

Though trustees at the Metropolitan have made multimillion-dollar gifts, those at the Museum of the City of New York have rarely given more $20,000.