The Biggest Billionaire Donors To HBCUs

On Monday, Howard University announced an unrestricted $80 million donation from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott—the latest in a string of gifts Scott has made to historically Black colleges and universities over the past two months that total nearly $300 million.

Despite political pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion—or perhaps because of it—billionaire donations to HBCUs have picked up dramatically this year. Chronically underfunded by the government and hit by student loan cuts, at least 8 HBCUs have received billionaire gifts since the 2024 presidential election.

In addition to Scott’s big contributions, last month Home Depot cofounder Arthur Blank’s foundation gave $50 million to Atlanta’s HBCUs, while private equity billionaire Robert F. Smith, who famously paid off loans of 2019 graduates at Morehouse College, is planning to expand an initiative that provides loans of up to $20,000 per year ($40,000 total) to sophomores, juniors and seniors at more than 70 HBCUs, tribal colleges and minority-serving institutions.

They aren’t the only ones. In all, Forbes found at least nine billionaires who have made major donations to HBCUs, some stretching back decades. Notable donors include NBA legend Michael Jordan and musician Jay-Z, who both gave in 2021, as well as Oprah Winfrey, who wrote her first known check back in 1989. Their donations have helped fund student housing, support journalism programs and cover student loans. In total, these billionaire HBCU backers have given more than $1 billion combined.

The money goes a long way. “We’re providing opportunities to people who might not otherwise have access to higher education,” says Wayne A. I. Frederick, Howard’s interim president. “You’re not just changing their lives, you’re often helping create generational wealth and opportunities for families who have never had that access before.”

The recent $80 million gift is the largest single donation Howard has ever received. It comes on top of $40 million Scott gave the 14,500-student school in 2020 and a $12 million check she wrote in 2023. The Washington, D.C., university plans to allocate about most of the newest funds from Scott to support the student body, he says, with $17 million designated for a new academic medical center.

Meanwhile, Huston-Tillotson University, a liberal arts college in Austin, Texas, with around 1,000 students, received $150 million—the largest single donation to an HBCU—in September, from a family foundation established by late Texas financier William Lewis Moody Jr. (d. 1954). The school is planning to use the funding to support student living, academic spaces and its overall strategic plan.

“Some of the dollars that have been flowing to HBCUs have been going to state-supported schools, and that’s really great,” says Melva K. Wallace, president of Huston-Tillotson. “But you have small private institutions who have been plugging along and doing the work for over 150 years like HT. That money could really transform the lives of students who desire a liberal arts education.”

The financial gap between HBCUs and traditional, predominantly white institutions remains immense. According to a May 2024 White House report, the endowments of public HBCUs stood at about 50% of their public non-HBCU counterparts in 2021. The divide is even deeper at private schools, where the average HBCU endowment per full-time student is about one-fifth of the endowment at private non-HBCUs.

Billionaires, however, tend to give big bucks not to HBCUs or smaller traditional universities, but instead to elite institutions that are already well-funded, such as Harvard ($56.9 billion endowment), Yale ($44.1 billion endowment). Howard’s endowment stands at around $1 billion; Huston-Tillotson’s was around$15 million before the recent gift.

Wall Street billionaire Ken Griffin has pledged more than $500 million to Harvard. The widow of investor David Gottesman (d. 2022) pledged $1 billion in 2024 to cover all tuition for all future students of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In August, Nike cofounder Phil Knight and his wife Penny made what is believed to be the largest single pledge ever to a university: $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University to support cancer research. That single gift is worth more than all known billionaire donations to HBCUs ever.

Here are some of the biggest known givers to HBCUs among Forbes’ billionaires list.

Estimated net worth: $36.7 billion

$849 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Amazon

The ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has taken the billions she got in her 2019 divorce and set about giving them away at a record pace. She has donated more than $19 billion in total to more than 2,450 organizations, ranging from literary arts to infectious diseases.

In recent weeks, Scott has donated more than $300 million to 8 HBCUs, including $50 million to Virginia State University, $42 million to Alcorn State University, $38 million to Spelman College, $63 million to Morgan State University, $38 million to Alabama State University, $38 million to Clark Atlanta University and $38 million to University of Maryland Eastern Shore, in addition to Monday’s $80 million gift to Howard. She also gave Howard $40 million in 2020 and $12 million in 2023. She contributed $70 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in September.

Estimated net worth: $109.4 billion

$705 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Bloomberg LP

In August 2024, his Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $600 million gift to strengthen the endowments of the nation’s four historically Black medical schools: Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science, Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine.

The former New York City mayor’s charity also pledged $5 million in seed funding to help launch the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, a new medical school in New Orleans founded by Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health. All this builds upon Bloomberg’s earlier efforts: His 2020 Greenwood Initiative provided $100 million to the same four HBCUs to reduce debt for nearly 1,000 future doctors and made a $6 million gift in 2021 to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines in underserved communities.

Estimated net worth: $10 billion

$134 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Private Equity

The founder of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners became a household name in 2019 when he pledged to pay off the student loan debt of 400 graduates at Morehouse College—a gift totaling $34 million.

Smith followed that groundbreaking act in June of 2020 with a $50 million gift made personally and another $50 million through his Fund II Foundation to launch the Student Freedom Initiative, which also received $150 million from communications conglomerate Cisco. The program now provides loans of up to $20,000 per year to students at more than 70 HBCUs, minority-serving institutions and tribal colleges, helping ease the burden of education debt.

Estimated net worth: $5.9 billion

$130 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Netflix

The Netflix cofounder and his wife Patty Quillin committed $120 million in 2020 to support scholarships at HBCUs.

Their gift, split equally among Spelman College, Morehouse College and the United Negro College Fund, will fund 200 four-year scholarships over 10 years.

The couple also donated $10 million in 2022 to support scholarship programs at Tougaloo College and Brown University. The funding will provide financial aid for Tougaloo students pursuing degrees in medicine, public health, science, education, business and other community-focused fields.

Estimated net worth: $8 billion

$100 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Medical equipment

In 2024, Stryker—an heir to the Stryker medical equipment fortune—and her husband, William Johnston, announced a $100 million donation to Spelman College as the institution celebrated the 100th anniversary of its official naming in 1924.

Of that amount, $75 million will fund endowed scholarships to remove financial barriers for future students, while the remaining $25 million will support new programs in public policy and democracy, enhance student housing and address other strategic needs.

Estimated net worth: $11.1 billion

$66.5 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Home Depot

The Home Depot cofounder and Atlanta Falcons owner announced in October that his foundation would donate $50 million to Atlanta’s historically Black colleges and universities.

The gift supports nearly 10,000 students at Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College and Spelman College through “gap scholarships” that help students in good academic standing finish their degrees after exhausting all other financial aid options. He also donated $10 million to Spelman in 2022 to establish the Arthur M. Blank Innovation Lab.

In 2024, his foundation donated $6.5 million to Albany State University, Clark Atlanta University, Miles College and Savannah State University to renovate their football fields through the HBCU Invitational Field Refurbishment Program.

Estimated net worth: $3.2 billion

$25 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Television

Oprah has long advocated for Black education. She may have been the first billionaire to donate to an HBCU, giving $12 million to Morehouse College in 1989, followed by another $13 million in 2019 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, bringing her total contributions to the Atlanta institution to at least $25 million.

In 2007, she opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. She spent about $40 million to turn 52 acres of land into a campus built to Ivy League standards.

Estimated net worth: $2.6 billion

$2 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Music

The Shawn Carter Foundation partnered with BeyGOOD and Tiffany & Co. to launch the About Love Scholarship Fund in 2021. The $2 million initiative supported five historically Black colleges and universities: Norfolk State University, Lincoln University, Bennett College, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and Central State University. The goal of the scholarship was to provide financial assistance to students pursuing degrees in creative fields.

Estimated net worth: $3.8 billion

$1 million to HBCUs

Source of wealth: Charlotte Hornets, endorsements

Jordan and Nike’s Jordan Brand donated $1 million to Morehouse College in 2021. The gift helped strengthen the school’s journalism and sports studies program, which was first started by filmmaker Spike Lee. The degree program is fairly new and uses the money as a renewable scholarship for students in need of financial support.