Tag: Gifts

  • MacKenzie Scott’s recent college gifts top $700M. See who got funding.

    MacKenzie Scott’s recent college gifts top $700M. See who got funding.

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    Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is on another donation spree, giving more than $740 million total to over a dozen historically Black colleges and universities, as well as at least one tribal college since mid-October.

    In 2019 — the same year Scott and her ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, divorced — she pledged to give away most of her wealth. Scott’s fortune is estimated to be worth $38.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.

    On Thursday, Little Priest Tribal College, in Nebraska, said it received a $5 million donation from the billionaire philanthropist. The institution — the first tribal college to publicly announce a gift from Scott during her latest donation blitz — said it would use the gift to accelerate plans to develop a new 10-acre campus.  

    Only two days earlier, Xavier University of Louisiana, a HBCU, announced it had received a $38 million unrestricted donation from Scott. 

    So far, Howard University, in Washington, D.C., has garnered the largest among Scott’s recent gifts to colleges. Earlier this month, the philanthropist donated the research university $80 million, earmarking $17 million of that amount for its medical college. 

    Most of the colleges have received gifts from Scott before. 

    Scott has made mass donations to higher education institutions in previous years — by 2021, she had given at least $1.5 billion total to roughly six dozen institutions. Her other rounds of donations have likewise focused on minority-serving institutions, such as Hispanic-serving institutions and HBCUs. 

    Below, we’re rounding up colleges that have received gifts from Scott in her latest donation spree. Let us know if we’ve missed any announcements.

    Scott has given over $700M to colleges in latest donation spree

    The gifts higher education institutions have received from Scott in recent months

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  • UC Berkeley Faces Foreign Gifts Investigation

    UC Berkeley Faces Foreign Gifts Investigation

    The Education Department is investigating the University of California, Berkeley, regarding compliance with a federal law that requires colleges to disclose certain foreign gifts and contracts.

    It’s the first such review launched since President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday aimed at increasing transparency over the “foreign influence at American universities.”

    A notice of the investigation and corresponding records requests were sent to UC Berkeley on Friday morning after the department found that the university’s disclosures might be incomplete.

    “There have been widespread media reports over the last several years of Berkeley’s very substantial—in the hundreds of millions of dollars—receipt of money from foreign governments, in this case, particularly China,” a senior Education Department official said on a press call Friday. But while the development of “important technologies” has been shared with foreign nations, the funding that made it possible “has not been reported to the department, as it’s required by law,” in Section 117 of the Higher Education Act, the official added.

    Under Section 117, colleges and universities must report twice a year all grants and contracts with foreign entities that are worth more than $250,000. The department opened a similar review into Harvard last week.

    UC Berkeley administrators will have 30 days to respond with the requested records. From there, the Department of Education’s general counsel, in partnership with the Departments of Justice and Treasury, will “verify the degree to which UC Berkeley is or is not compliant.” (Unlike with Harvard, the Department of Education did not disclose the specific records it had requested from Berkeley.)

    “The Biden-Harris Administration turned a blind eye to colleges and universities’ legal obligations by deprioritizing oversight and allowing foreign gifts to pour onto American campuses,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a news release. “I have great confidence in my Office of General Counsel to investigate these matters fully.”

    Trump and congressional Republicans have been trying to crack down on the enforcement of Section 117 since the first Trump administration. Already this year, House Republicans passed a bill, known as the DETERRENT Act, which would lower the general threshold required for reporting foreign donations from $250,000 to $50,000. Gifts from some countries, like China and Russia, would have to be reported no matter the value. The Senate has yet to move forward with the bill. 

    When asked how Trump’s executive order differentiates itself from the DETERRENT Act, the department official said the legislation would be “entirely consistent with the EO’s directives” and that the department is “very supportive” of congressional Republicans’ efforts.

    “The EO basically just says, enforce the law vigorously, return to enforcement of the law, stop the nonsense and work with other agencies to do it,” the official explained. “So whether the reporting requirement is for $250,000 or more per year or the lower threshold, our approach will be the same.”

    Inside Higher Ed asked the department if there would be more investigations but has not yet received a response.

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