Why be sarcastic? You are not different.

Except that these days we don't fund many things that way.

But it wasn't always so, in the past if you were not a patron of the arts (which also meant science), you were nobody. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

Effectively that was a way of funding exactly the type of thing you describe - you just had to explain how what you did helped society. For example look up the Balmis Expedition, which was funded by the King of Spain.

I'm trying to say, it's not really so strange to fund things that way, it's just that today it's limited to certain types of institutions/programs.

The main reason it's not as common these days is the flattening of the income curve. You don't have such extremes of wealth and poverty. People can usually afford the things they need. But when they can't, this type of funding does come into play.

This explains why expensive universities get donations, but cheaper ones don't.