For the past two years, I have had the honor to serve on an advisory board for the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) as they continue to study the effects of large, unrestricted gifts on philanthropy through the lenses of both recipients and funders. I have been especially proud to review the data collected and share my thoughts from the perspective of a historically Black college or university (HBCU) that was one of the very grateful recipients of a MacKenzie Scott gift in 2021.

I joined Lincoln University (in Pennsylvania) a few months after the arrival of the Scott gift. During my two years there, I was able to observe the ways in which this generosity provided solid support for the university as it climbed out of the worst part of the pandemic, as it sought to further establish the university foundation, and as it suddenly needed to provide additional support for students in financial need and for the needs of the university for technological upgrades. Having this source of funding was critical then and remains a flexible fund for such needs because of its unrestricted nature.

As I transition from serving at that institution back to my alma mater — also an HBCU, but not a recipient of one of those gifts — I have chosen to reflect on the power of not just that gift, but any large unrestricted gift that might be provided to the type of institution where I was educated and now will have spent a portion of my career.

It is not an overstatement to say that gifts of this type are transformational in nature. That is because in most cases, seven and eight figure gifts are either once in a lifetime for HBCUs or extremely infrequent — with long stretches in between them. And, even if they were frequent, gifts of this size are generally offered with strict restrictions on how to use them as well as very structured reporting processes needed to prove that the money was used for the intended purpose, and only that purpose. The power of these recent large gifts can be seen in the ability for supported organizations to expand their footprints in various communities, and to be able to demonstrate that impact. In some cases staff numbers have been able to be increased in order to make the load less on previously small staffs. In large part, organizations were provided with a sense that their mission mattered.

Read the full article about funding HBCUs by Ava Willis-Barksdale at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.