An anonymous donor gave $20 million to Morehouse College, the private, historically Black men’s school in Atlanta announced Tuesday.
The college will use the money to recruit new faculty by funding six endowed professorships in various divisions, from business to humanities and science. The school described the donation as the largest it’s received designated for professor positions.
“Our faculty are the heartbeat of this institution. They lead our academic programs, develop the intellect of our students, and challenge them to go out in the world and be great. They have fueled the success of thousands of Morehouse Men,” said a statement from President David A. Thomas, who recently announced that he’ll retire at the end of the coming school year.
“This transformational $20 million gift will allow us to increase the ranks of our esteemed and talented professors so that we can uphold the legacy of excellence in our classrooms as our veteran faculty retire,” Thomas said.
More than 300 full-and part-time faculty work at Morehouse now.
Tuesday’s announcement makes for a monumental day of giving for Atlanta’s HBCUs. Morehouse School of Medicine, an independent medical school that is also a member of the Atlanta University Center Consortium, said Tuesday it has received $175 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies. That figure is the largest single gift the medical school has received in its history.
At Morehouse College, the $20 million will fund professors in the Division of Business and Economics; the Division of Humanities, Social Sciences, Media, and the Arts; and the Division of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
The gift was made to the college’s ongoing capital campaign, launched publicly in 2022, which aims to raise $500 million for various initiatives, including student scholarships, faculty recruitment, campus improvements and academic programs. With this latest gift, the campaign has reached nearly $290 million in donations, according to Morehouse College.
The college has received other major gifts in recent years, including $20 million in 2020 from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The year before Morehouse received a gift totaling $34 million from investor Robert F. Smith to pay student loan debt for the 2019 graduating class.
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