Michael Bloomberg donated $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University in November 2018 to help students pay for college, marking one of the biggest gifts ever made to a university by a single person.
The donation was especially meaningful because Bloomberg, who graduated from the school in 1964, had relied on a National Defense student loan and a campus job to help pay for his own education.
The gift aimed to make Johns Hopkins more accessible to students from low- and middle-income families. It was designed to help the university admit students without considering their ability to pay and replace undergraduate student loans with scholarships that students would not have to repay.
Michael Bloomberg attends the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Opening Night at Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on Sept. 19, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Bloomberg announced the donation in an opinion article published by The New York Times on Nov. 18, 2018. At the time, the gift was described as the largest individual donation ever made to a single American university.
The businessman and former New York City mayor said his own college experience helped shape his decision to support students who might otherwise struggle to afford higher education.
“My Hopkins diploma opened up doors that otherwise would have been closed, and allowed me to live the American dream,” Bloomberg wrote.
His donation brought his total contributions to Johns Hopkins to more than $3.35 billion, making his support one of the largest philanthropic investments in an American institution of higher education, according to CNBC.
Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. His education was supported in part by a National Defense student loan and money earned through a campus job.
In 1965, one year after graduating, he made his first donation to the university: $5. It was a small amount compared with the billions he would later give, but it marked the beginning of a long relationship with his former school.
Bloomberg went on to build a successful business career. He co-founded Bloomberg L.P., a financial information and media company, and served three terms as mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013.
Despite his success, he continued to recognize the role his college education had played in his life. In his 2018 opinion article, he explained why he wanted other students to have a similar chance.
“America is at its best when we reward people based on the quality of their work, not the size of their pocketbook,” he wrote. “Denying students entry to a college based on their ability to pay undermines equal opportunity.”
Bloomberg said his donation would help qualified students from families with limited financial resources attend Johns Hopkins without facing the same financial barriers that many students experience.
He also encouraged other donors to direct their money toward financial aid. In his view, helping students pay for college was an important way to expand educational opportunities.
Johns Hopkins University announced that Bloomberg’s $1.8 billion gift would support a major expansion of its undergraduate financial aid program.
Two important parts of the plan were need-blind admissions and a loan-free financial aid program.
Need-blind admissions means a university does not consider a student’s ability to pay when making admission decisions. Instead, the school evaluates applicants based on its admissions standards.
A loan-free financial aid program means students receive scholarships and other forms of aid instead of having student loans included in their financial aid packages. Unlike loans, scholarships generally do not need to be repaid.
According to the university’s announcement, Johns Hopkins planned to become loan-free for undergraduate students beginning in fall 2019. It also planned to provide immediate loan relief for enrolled undergraduates with federal need-based loans during the spring 2019 semester.
The university said the additional funding would help reduce the amount families needed to contribute toward college costs. It would also support efforts to recruit more students from low-income families and provide them with opportunities after enrollment.
These opportunities included research projects, internships and study-abroad programs. The goal was to ensure that financial hardship would not prevent students from taking part in important parts of university life.
University president Ronald J. Daniels praised Bloomberg’s contribution, describing it as a major step toward making higher education accessible to qualified students from different financial backgrounds.
Daniels also said the university wanted at least 20 percent of its students to qualify for federal Pell grants by 2023. These grants help eligible students with financial need pay for college.
Although Bloomberg’s donation offered significant support to Johns Hopkins students, the gift also raised questions about the wider problem of college affordability.
In 2018, the university faced concerns about the limited number of students from low-income families attending highly selective colleges. An analysis cited by The New York Times found that the median family income of Johns Hopkins students was $177,300, while only 6.6 percent of undergraduates came from families in the bottom 40 percent of the income range.
Bloomberg’s gift was intended to help address some of these barriers by reducing financial pressure and supporting efforts to reach students who might not otherwise consider Johns Hopkins.
For Johns Hopkins, Bloomberg’s contribution provided a major source of support for its plans to reduce student debt and attract students from a wider range of economic backgrounds.
Related: Jack Dorsey co-founded Twitter when it launched in 2006 and became its CEO in 2007; 14 years later, he pledged $1 billion of his fortune to pandemic relief
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