Perhaps you're not aware that the CS faculty at Harvard is currently housed in a building funded by Bill Gates as part of a previous donation (with Ballmer).

I think it's possible to donate to a wide variety of causes - a similar argument cropped up on some of the ESA discussions here yesterday, with some people asking why we should bother spending money in space when there's a lot of pressing problems on earth. Investing in education could result in discoveries being made that could benefit millions of people. We are probably in agreement about buying a basketball team being a waste of money though!