University of Kansas Business School Receives Anonymous $50M Donation

• The University of Kansas School of Business received a $50 million anonymous donation, school officials announced in September.
• The gift is the largest in the business school's history.
• The anonymous donor highlighted recent successes of the school's strategic planning process, like boosted certificate programs and a new master's in business analytics degree.
• The massive gift will go toward both existing and new initiatives and supporting student success, school officials said.

The University of Kansas (KU) School of Business just got the largest gift in school history — from an anonymous donor.

The $50 million anonymous gift "will have a ripple effect that extends well beyond this current moment in time," KU Endowment President Dan Martin said in a press release.

"While a gift of this size is certainly newsworthy, it's what this gift will enable that is truly worth noting," Martin said, adding that the school is "honored and humbled" by the anonymous donor's investment.

The donor highlighted the school's historic success and recent goals via a strategic planning process that launched during the 2017-2018 academic year. That strategic planning effort has included updated undergraduate curriculum and more flexible admissions policies, boosted research incentives for tenure-track faculty, certificate programs, and a new master's program in the high-demand business analytics field.

KU School of Business Dean Paige Fields said the gift would allow the school to build on those initiatives and undertake new initiatives.

"This transformative gift supports the School of Business' ongoing commitment to excellence in research and student success," Fields said. "It will allow our school to further invest in our current mission-driven initiatives, to pursue aspirational objectives and to identify future opportunities, ensuring we continue delivering relevant, innovative business education."

The school has had record enrollment growth, according to the release. The gift will also go toward supporting student success initiatives, including its diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts.

The $50 million donation to Kansas is among the latest major gifts to a business school this year.

Purdue University received $50 million earlier this year from the White Family Foundation to expand its undergraduate business school program. And the University of Chicago Booth School of Business received a $100 million gift for its 100th anniversary to support research and students.