Robert Kraft

Once or twice a month, similar scenes are unfolding at Boston-area nonprofits, many of them small enough that a six-figure contribution is akin to hitting the lottery. The out-of-the-blue phone call or voice mail. The unlikely caller. The astonishment that leads some people to assume they’re victims of a prank.

And, finally, the dawning realization that the man on the line bearing gifts is, indeed, New England Patriots owner and billionaire businessman Robert Kraft.