MacKenzie Scott has donated more than $700 million to historically Black colleges and universities this year, marking one of the largest single-year philanthropic investments in HBCUs in U.S. history and delivering what school leaders describe as a lifeline at a moment of widening racial and economic inequality.
Philander Smith University in Arkansas announced Friday that it received $19 million from Scott — the largest gift in its 147-year history. “This gift is a resounding vote of confidence in our mission and our momentum,” Dr. Maurice D. Gipson, the university’s president, said in a statement. Philander Smith is one of 15 HBCUs to receive donations from Scott in 2025, according to a list compiled by Marybeth Gasman, a Rutgers professor who studies minority-serving institutions.
Scott’s latest round of giving includes eight-figure gifts to some of the country’s most prominent Black institutions. Howard University received an $80 million donation in early November, including $17 million designated for its medical school — the oldest training center for Black physicians in the United States. Wayne A. I. Frederick, Howard’s president, called the gift “transformative,” noting that Scott’s contributions to the university now total more than $130 million over the past five years.
Her approach, Frederick added, stands out because she puts no restrictions on how the funds can be used. “Placing that trust and that opportunity in our hands to do what we may consider highest priority is so critical, and especially in a shifting landscape,” he said.
Other institutions receiving major gifts included Prairie View A&M University in Texas and Morgan State University in Maryland, both at $63 million; Bowie State and Norfolk State at $50 million each; and several smaller HBCUs such as Voorhees University and Philander Smith, which received $19 million apiece. The United Negro College Fund received $70 million from Scott, to be distributed among 37 HBCUs.
Michael Lomax, the UNCF’s president and chief executive, called Scott’s investments a “sea change in American philanthropy,” noting that HBCUs have spent more than a century educating students with far fewer resources than predominantly white institutions. More than 70 percent of HBCU students qualify for Pell grants, he said, reflecting the schools’ central role in educating low-income and first-generation college students.
Scott, who has pledged to give away the majority of her wealth, said she and her team use data to identify institutions serving communities with high food insecurity, high racial inequity, and low access to philanthropic capital.
Her gifts arrive as the Trump administration has also funneled additional resources to HBCUs. In September, the administration allocated nearly $500 million in supplemental support for HBCUs and tribal colleges, on top of existing federal funds. During Trump’s first term, his administration distributed $250 million in annual HBCU funding and cleared more than $300 million in federal loans for the schools.
Still, experts say the administration’s approach has been uneven. Gasman noted that while the federal government has provided financial support to HBCUs, it has simultaneously targeted diversity programs and cut funding to minority-serving initiatives in science and engineering. “They are willing to support Black people in Black institutions, but they are not very comfortable with Black people in white institutions,” she said.
