NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale’s Class of 1954 relied on the Wall Street smarts of some alumni to turn an initial $75,000 into a $110 million donation – the largest-ever class gift to the Ivy League school.

The proceeds of the 54/50 Donation Fund will be presented to the school during the class’s 50th reunion this week.

The fund was set up at the suggestion of alumnus and Wall Street money manager Richard Gilder.

Instead of giving money directly to Yale, Gilder and other alumni agreed to pool their money and invest it themselves.

“Wall Street is certainly Yale territory,” Gilder said Tuesday. “If the endowment is doing poorly and if we have all these graduates working on Wall Street, why not see what each class can do?”

In 1981, about 20 alumni contributed $75,000. By the 30th class reunion, 31 other alumni had kicked in about $300,000.

The fund was managed by Joe McNay, a 1956 graduate who founded Essex Capital Management, a Boston firm.

The fund had an extraordinary 37 percent compounded average annual rate of return.

McNay said he was an early believer in investments in Internet companies, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other companies that made it big.

Donald K. Clifford Jr. said his original $5,000 donation is now worth more than $2.5 million. “We put in next to nothing and came out with millions,” Clifford said in Tuesday’s New York Times.