Didn't find the Atlantic article about the Mellon as objectionable as some, but I parsed AWM's most recent 990: of $555M in giving, $225M went to higher ed. That's like half the annual spend of an Arts&Sciences college at a big public R1. It's just not enough to move the needle.
Put another way, there are about 400 R1s + liberal arts colleges in America. $225M = about $500K per. Higher ed in America is simply enormous, and the idea that a few hundred mil in grantmaking each year can exert a real gravitational effect seems questionable by the numbers.
The top 4 public R1s recieved $8M (directly, excluding things like ACLS), which probably sounds like a lot, until you realize that they probably spend ~$3-400M on their respective humanities divisions in aggregate, which makes this like 2% of funding.
Anyway, to paraphrase Brother Mouzone, the most dangerous thing in the world is an English major with a pivot table.
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