When foundations reduce their support to a field, they generally offer brief explanations for their actions, citing a record of past achievement, a new constellation of social needs, and a consequent reconfiguration of priorities. Other rationales for the foundations' recent rift with higher education include friction between foundation agendas and conservative college and university identities, frustration with respect to accountability for results, and uncertainty about whether institutions will sustain what foundations help them begin. The independence of foundations and universities may cause them to misapprehend each other, become frustrated, and misjudge where their long-run interests coincide. Foundations and institutions will understand each other better if they experiment with different kinds of working relationships, collaborations, and projects that encourage more comprehensive and cumulative efforts to address issues in which they have common interests.