Concordia University is the proud recipient of a new $2.5 million … let’s call it a donation from the Bank of Montreal

In exchange for this generous offering, Concordia will name a 300-seat theatre in its new business building the BMO Amphitheatre, and it will start a BMO Lecture Series, bringing in important people to talk about business and social responsibility.

The donation was the work of L. Jacques Menard, who is a big honcho at BMO and a member of Concordia’s Board of Governors. (It also serves to remind us why big corporate honchos sit on the board in the first place.)

To give a bit of perspective to the donation, the John Molson School of Business itself was given the name after a $10 million donation from the Molson family, while Molson Inc. head Eric Molson was the university’s chancellor.

With that in mind, it seems Concordia wins the cost-benefit game here.