Topline
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is giving $600 million to four historically Black medical schools, Bloomberg’s charity said Tuesday—in what will reportedly be the largest donations ever to a historically Black college or university.
Bloomberg donated $1 billion to cover tuition costs for medical students at Johns Hopkins University … [+]
Key Facts
Bloomberg will donate $175 million each to the endowments of Meharry Medical College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Howard University College of Medicine and $75 million to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced.
The donations will more than double the size of three of the four medical schools’ endowments, the charity said, though it did not specify which schools.
Bloomberg previously donated $100 million to the four medical schools in 2020 to help reduce debt for enrolled students.
Xavier Oschsner College of Medicine, a medical school under development in New Orleans, will also receive a $5 million grant.
The donations are among the largest-ever donations given to an HBCU, according to the Associated Press, surpassing a $100 million donation to Spelman College from billionaires Ronda Stryker and William Johnston earlier this year.
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Surprising Fact
Only about 5% of doctors in the U.S. are Black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2022, about 10% of medical degrees to Black graduates were awarded by HBCUs, according to statistics from the Department of Education.
Key Background
Bloomberg launched a philanthropic initiative during his presidential campaign in 2020 that his charity said was aimed at the racial wealth gap. The Greenwood Initiative, named after the race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1921, has pledged $896 million so far, including the latest gifts to the four medical schools. Bloomberg has also donated over $4.5 billion to Johns Hopkins University, an effort Bloomberg said has helped to increase the number of students coming from families with the greatest financial need. He donated $1 billion to the university in July to make medical school tuition-free for most students and increase financial aid for students in nursing, public health and other non-medical graduate schools.
Forbes Valuation
Bloomberg has an estimated net worth of $104.7 billion and is the 13th-richest person in the world as of Tuesday. Bloomberg, who served as mayor of New York City for over a decade, is ranked by Forbes as the richest person in New York. He started on Wall Street in the 1960s before co-founding the finance and media company Bloomberg LP in 1981. Bloomberg has donated more than $17 billion and is ranked among the most philanthropic billionaires in the U.S. by Forbes this year.
