Americans donated an estimated $78.8 billion to colleges and universities in fiscal year 2025, a 4% increase from the previous year that barely kept pace with inflation Survey results published on Tuesday by the Council for the Promotion and Support of Education.
But that number doesn’t fully illustrate where the money is actually going or which schools have been left out in the past. According to a study by , the average Ivy League school received 178 times as much philanthropic funding as the average HBCU between 2015 and 2019 Open. Total Ivy League giving during that period was over $5.5 billion, while HBCUs took in a total of just $303 million.
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has stepped in to fill this gap, especially after the Trump administration cut federal funding for historically black colleges and universities.
Over the past five years, Scott has donated more than $1.2 billion to HBCUs, making her one of the top donors in the category. (In total, Scott has donated well over $26 billion to thousands of organizations.) She has donated in 2025 alone more than $700 million to more than a dozen HBCUs and affiliated organizations.
Scott has also expanded her higher education giving to community colleges, Hispanic institutions and tribal colleges, many of which had never received a donation of this magnitude.
Scott’s largest donation to HBCUs
Many of the donations Scott has made to higher education institutions are historic. Howard University, the alma mater of former Vice President Kamala Harris, Thurgood Marshall and Toni Morrison, received $80 million in November 2025 – one of the largest single donations in the school’s history, with $17 million earmarked for Howard’s College of Medicine.
This gift came at a particularly critical time for Howard. As of October 1, 2025, the Ministry of Education stopped issuing new grants as almost 95% of non-student support staff were furloughed and only essential staff were able to continue working.
That left key programs like the HBCU Capital Financing Program, which provides renovation and construction loan grants, in limbo, as well as the Department of Education announced a $495 million increase in September 2025 for HBCUs and tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCUs) for fiscal year 2025. But experts say this measure is difficult to reconcile with that of the Trump administration Desire to disband the DOE.
“If [the Trump administration] “Actually … if you take care of HBCUs and tribal colleges, then there wouldn’t be such a big attack on other areas of higher education,” said Mike Hoa Nguyen, an associate professor of education at UCLA. told The American perspective in October 2025.
Scott’s other major gifts to HBCUs include a $63 million donation to Morgan State University (the largest donation in its history); Prairie View A&M also received $63 million and Bowie State, Norfolk State, Virginia State and Winston-Salem State each received $50 million. In early April, Elizabeth City State University celebrated a $42 million gift on its Founder’s Day. With this donation, Scott’s cumulative HBCU total passed the billion dollar mark.
Scott also donated $70 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in 2025 to strengthen pooled endowments for private HBCUs. She also gave 70 million dollars to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which represents public HBCUs.
“MacKenzie Scott is rewriting the book on individual philanthropy and making a huge difference,” said UNCF President and CEO Dr. Michael Lomax said in a PBS NewsHour interview following the UNCF donation.
Why Scott’s gifts come at the right time
The Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 provides for one Reduction of 14.4% in Title III funding, a federal program that helps HBCUs, tribal colleges and other underfunded institutions improve their academic programs, management and financial stability. This brings the budget down to around $668 million.
“The budget continues the illegal dismantling of the Department of Education without providing any indication of how this downsized department can fulfill its statutory duties,” Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said in a statement opinion. “[By] By eliminating programs that provide direct support services to disadvantaged students and promote college access, President Trump’s budget proposal delivers nothing for students.”
Also the White House proposed cutting $64 million from Howard Universitys direct federal allocation, just days after the president told HBCU leaders there was nothing to worry about during a NewsNation town hall. The Trump administration responded that the cut was necessary to “more sustainably support the nation’s only federally chartered Historically Black College and University (HBCU).”
While the Ministry of Education around $495 million was diverted In one-time, discretionary appropriations to HBCUs and tribal colleges in September 2025, these funds came at the expense of $350 million in grants redirected from Hispanic-serving institutions and other minority-serving institutions — the department programs called “ineffective and discriminatory.” The proposed budget would also reduce the maximum amount Pell Grant for $1,685 and completely eliminate federal subsidies for additional educational opportunities.
For schools that educate predominantly low-income, first-generation students, the combination of cuts represents what higher education researcher Terrell Strayhorn suggests told Higher Ed Dive in May 2025 threatens “the very presence and long-term sustainability of some HBCUs.”
Scott’s gifts don’t completely replace federal funding, but they at least provide some breathing room.
Beyond HBCUs: community colleges and tribal schools
Scott’s reach in higher education extends far beyond HBCUs. In recent months, she has donated tens of millions of dollars to schools that rarely if ever make headlines in the world of philanthropy.
Northern Oklahoma College, the state’s oldest public community college where about 80% of students rely on financial aid, received 17 million dollars– the largest gift in the school’s history. Carl Albert State College in Oklahoma received 23 million dollars. Robeson Community College in rural North Carolina received $24 millionand neighboring Bladen Community College 12 million dollars.
Scott also made record-breaking gifts to tribal institutions, including 22 million dollars to Turtle Mountain College in North Dakota, 9 million dollars to Bay Mills Community College in Michigan and 5 million dollars to Little Priest Tribal College in Nebraska, whose president said the money would help build an entirely new $60 million campus.
“This investment will not only expand our physical footprint, but also enable us to better serve our students, community and generations to come,” Little Priest President Manoj Patil said in a statement.
The billionaire philanthropist also directed the film 50 million dollars to Lehman College in CUNY and Cal State East Bay, respectively, And 38 million dollars at Texas A&M International, Texas A&M University–Kingsville and UC Merced, all of which are federally designated facilities serving Hispanics.
Scott’s trust-based approach
Scott’s donations to HBCUs and other underserved institutions are particularly impactful because she practices trust-based philanthropy and gives unreservedly.
That means schools can spend the money as they see fit, whether by expanding scholarships, hiring teachers, repairing buildings or increasing endowments. This flexibility is rare in philanthropy, where major donations often come with restrictions, reporting requirements and donor control.
“Their style allows organizations like ours to figure out how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing problems,” Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, told Fortune in 2024.
Early evidence suggests Scott’s approach is working. A Analysis 2021 The Rutgers Graduate School of Education study of the 23 HBCUs that received Scott’s initial 2020 donations found that the schools Scott selected already had median new student enrollment more than 300 higher than comparable HBCUs that did not receive funding, and retention rates were an average of 15 percentage points higher, suggesting Scott targeted institutions with demonstrated momentum.
“We conduct this research and deeper review not only to identify organizations with high impact potential, but also to pave the way for unsolicited and unexpected gifts that are given with full trust and no strings attached,” Scott said, according to the report.
The college philanthropy system is designed to support schools that already have the most resources, and Scott systematically directs their resources to those that don’t.
