INDIANAPOLIS

THE MOST IMPORTANT LEGAL CASE in decades to affect the philanthropic and nonprofit communities came to a quiet close last month when the highly publicized “donor intent” lawsuit against Princeton University ended in a negotiated settlement. It brought to mind the memorable last lines of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men”: “This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Under the terms of the settlement, Princeton will dish out $100 million to Robertson family charities to pay the family’s legal expenses and launch a new nonprofit organization to do what Princeton was supposed to do in the first place: prepare top students for federal government careers in international affairs.

As William Robertson, lead plaintiff in the 6 1/2-year-old Robertson v. Princeton lawsuit, commented, the $100 million payout is “more than a slap on the wrist. This is a message to nonprofit organizations of all kinds and throughout our country that donors expect them to abide by the terms of designated gifts or suffer the consequences.”

Many in the media echoed this sentiment.

A columnist for the San Antonio Express-News said Princeton had been taught “a tough and costly lesson.” An editorial in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, calling donor intent “sacrosanct,” added: “Those who subvert the giving hand of philanthropy deserve to get smacked. Hard.”

And yes, $100 million is a tremendous sum and should send a powerful message to the nonprofit community about the importance of observing gift agreements.

But the settlement also conveys other messages.

Message 1: In some circumstances it may pay to ignore restrictions donors put on charitable gifts. While donor intent may be sacrosanct in the eyes of the pundits, and Princeton’s alleged misdeeds — admitting to nothing, of course — will cost the university $100 million or more, the university will keep five or six times that amount. That sounds like a pretty good payday and is unfortunately a calculation other institutions in similar circumstances may make.

Message 2: Pick your fights carefully; even the rich need to think twice about suing the super-rich. We don’t know how much the Robertson family is worth, but we do know they burned through some $40 million in legal fees. The trouble is: Princeton has an estimated $16 billion in its endowment kitty — $40 million is mere chump change — and the university could have dragged the case on until doomsday, regardless of cost. The Robertsons didn’t have that luxury.

Message 3: Plan ahead so you don’t end up in court. When money is donated for specific charitable purposes, donors must take care to spell out their intentions clearly and establish protocols for monitoring the money’s use, and for recovering funds if it is misused.

The Robertsons had the right idea, but the wrong mechanism. In their wisdom, the Robertsons kept the funds for the government-service-training program segregated: The money was not given to Princeton, but to a separate foundation. The mistake they made was giving Princeton control of that foundation.

The real shame of the brokered settlement is that we won’t have a chance to hear Princeton officials explain, for instance, how the $16,368 rug they purchased for the dean’s office with Robertson Foundation funds contributed to the education of Princeton students for foreign-service careers. And we won’t have a court decision that sets standards for other institutions on the matter of donor intent.

Virtually all of the philanthropists with whom we’ve worked in recent years were keenly aware of the Robertson case and were hoping the courts would bring some additional clarity to the issue, so they won’t face similar dilemmas in the future.

Instead, the case sputtered to an end with no precedent-setting decision, and only partial justice for Charles and Marie Robertson, whose extraordinary 1961 gift began the long saga of bad faith.

All Americans owe the Robertson family their gratitude. They tried. And they made their point. In the end, however, Princeton used its power and purse to wear them down.

The $100 million settlement will let the family start again at Square 1 — and launch a new program their parents can be proud of. It’s at least a partial victory: for the Robertsons, for philanthropy and for students interested in serving our country.

Frederic J. Fransen is president of Donor Advising, Research and Educational Services ( www.DonorAdvising.com), in suburban Indianapolis, an organization that helps charitable donors maximize the impact of their gifts.