Spelman College received a historic $100 million donation — reportedly the largest donation ever given to an HBCU.
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The donation will primarily go towards scholarships for students to attend the historically Black women’s college in Atlanta. The remaining money will go toward renovating dorms and crafting an academic focus on democracy and public policy, along with other miscellaneous needs, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ronda Stryker, who serves on the Spelman Board of Trustees, and her husband, William Johnston, provided the massive donation. A multibillionaire, Stryker is the director of Stryker Corporation, a medical equipment company founded by her grandfather, Homer Stryker. Johnston is founder and board chairman of Greenleaf Trust, a chartered trust bank.
Stryker, who lives near Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Johnston has served on Spelman’s board of trustees since 1997. She’s also a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and is vice chair of Greenleaf Trust.
This is far from the first time Stryker and her husband have donated large sums of money towards education. According to Forbes, she and her husband previously donated $30 million to Spelman College in 2018, $100 million to Western Michigan University in 2011 and $20 million to Harvard Medical School in 2016. Stryker also raised more than $1 million for the Women’s Education Coalition, which helps female non-traditional students get their education. She now c0-chairs the organization.
Stryker’s latest donation is part of a larger wave of investment into HBCUs. Earlier this year, the Lily Endowment Inc. donated $100 million to the United Negro College Fund. The fund is responsible for sending over 60,000 students every year to HBCUs across the country.
In 2022, Kevin Durant and Charles Barkley both made large donations to three historically Black colleges: Bowie State University, Bethune-Cookman University, and Jackson State University.
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