Research-intensive universities play a critical role in the world’s social, cultural and economic development, however, this role is hampered by a lack of stable and sufficient funding. In this note philanthropy is put forward as a possible additional funding resource. Although it is not likely to cover all funding that is currently lacking, funding from philanthropic sources is important to research universities as it can allow them do to things differently, to be ambitious. Philanthropy should however not result in jeopardising academic integrity and academic freedom, core values of research universities. Furthermore, successful fundraising from philanthropy requires an investment in long-lasting relationships between universities and their donors and needs strong support from institutional leadership. The note concludes by highlighting that even though philanthropy can be an important resource for the higher education sector, it should and cannot be a substitute for public funding.