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Giving to Morgan
MSU President David K. Wilson and MSU Vice President for Institutional Advancement Donna Howard Morgan Receives a Record $40-Million Gift From Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott
The giving season began early at Morgan State University in 2020, with the announcement of the receipt of a historic, $40-million gift from author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, in mid-December. The transformative gift is the largest single private donation in Morgan’s history and the second-largest gift to a public university in Maryland. The unrestricted funds will be used to support the University’s work essential to student success and to advance research and enhance investments in other mission-focused priorities and initiatives.
The majority of the gift will be used to seed the newly established “Leading the World Endowment Fund,” the first unrestricted endowment in the University’s history. The fund will be invested using the MSU Foundation’s successful asset allocation strategy, with future interest leveraged to underpin ongoing University initiatives that have a direct connection to Morgan’s strategic plan. Scott’s gift — among the large gifts she made to more than 35 institutions that provide “education for historically marginalized and underserved people” — doubles the endowment at Morgan, establishing a more promising future supporting students and faculty, and improving academic programs for years to come. Calvin and Tina Tyler
Tylers’ $20-Million Gift to Morgan Is Highest-Ever From an Alum
Media outlets across the U.S. and overseas trumpeted the announcement in February of a $20-million commitment to MSU from Morgan alumnus Calvin E. Tyler, Jr. and his wife, Tina. The gift from the two nationally known philanthropists increased the $5-million endowment of a scholarship fund the couple established in 2016 to provide full-tuition, need-based scholarships for select students residing in the Tylers’ hometown of Baltimore City. No longer exclusive to students from Baltimore, the scholarship is now national in scope and will benefit generations of future Morgan students seeking a college education. The Tylers’ latest gift is the largest private donation from an alumnus in Morgan’s history and is believed to be the largest contribution of its kind to any Historically Black College or University (HBCU) nationwide from an alum.
“My wife and I have become keenly aware of the effect that the pandemic has had on a number of young people trying to get an education, (and) we have the resources to help a lot of young people,” Tyler said. “This is why we are increasing our commitment at Morgan. We want to have more full-tuition scholarships offered to young people so that they can graduate from college and enter the next stage of their life debt-free.”
Bank of America Supports Jobs Initiative With $1 Million to MSU
Morgan State University has partnered with Bank of America in a $1-million jobs initiative launched last November, to help students of color complete the education and training necessary to enter the workforce and embark on a path to success in Maryland. The initiative is part of the bank’s recent, $1-billion, four-year commitment to advance racial equality and economic opportunity, and its $25-million commitment to enhance up-skilling and reskilling for Black/African-American and Hispanic/Latino individuals. The partnership builds on Bank of America’s ongoing work to address the underlying issues facing individuals and communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the current public health crisis. The bank provided $1.3 million in grants in 2020 to nonprofits led by or serving People of Color who are connecting individuals to skills and employment in Maryland.
Morgan will use the funding and other support from Bank of America to enhance existing programs to meet specific opportunities to create higher-paying, family-sustaining jobs that are in demand. Bank of America will work alongside employers in Maryland to ensure these programs target specific hiring needs and create a clearly defined career pathway to future employment.
Morgan State University, Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, has announced plans to establish a Center for Urban Health Equity. Housed in the University’s School of Community Health and Policy, the new center will engage in research to address health inequities in Maryland. The launch of the Center for Urban Health Equity at Morgan is being made possible through funds recently received from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott (See the article on page 2.), and the center will be maintained with an annual $3-million appropriation commitment from the State of Maryland to the University’s operational budget. For its part, Morgan is dedicating $500,000 from the historic Scott gift to get the new center started, while the majority of the remaining funds have been placed into an endowment to support other strategic initiatives for future generations.
The Center for Urban Health Equity at Morgan will occupy a unique space among the existing State-supported centers. The center will be designed to focus on communitydriven interests, allowing maximum research energy and effort for immediate allocation and response to the root issues that influence — and in many cases, perpetuate — health disparities. The University plans for the center’s research to be transformative, disruptive, innovative and, most critically, impactful. The center will also seek to provide leadership to a coordinated effort committed to bringing diverse thought and perspectives to establishment of a framework for health equity throughout the state and beyond. Whiting-Turner Commits $300,000 to Support Morgan Students’ Construction Dreams
Morgan State University has received a $300,000 commitment from The WhitingTurner Contracting Company to provide support to students pursuing degrees in construction management and civil engineering with a focus on construction. The commitment — $100,000 per year over the next three years — came in response to the financial challenges students have faced because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative is part of a proactive effort to keep students who are aspiring for careers in the construction industry enrolled until graduation.
Whiting-Turner is a construction management and general contracting firm headquartered in Baltimore with 50 regional offices across the U.S. Morgan’s partnership with the company is longstanding. Whiting-Turner selects interns from the University’s School of Architecture and Planning and School of Engineering each year, developing a career “pipeline” to guide quality workers to its workforce.
Morgan’s Economic Impact Expands to More Than $1 Billion Annually
An independent analysis of impact indicators and fiscal contributions released in January affirmed that Morgan remains a key economic driver in the region, generating $1.1 billion in annual financial impact on Maryland and $640 million within Baltimore City. The new findings reveal an 11.1% increase in statewide impact and an 11.5% increase in citywide impact since the University’s last commissioned economic impact study, in 2018. The fiscal year 2021 study, conducted by the national economic consulting firm Econsult Solutions, Inc., also found that Morgan is responsible for supporting 6,900 jobs statewide, nearly 4,200 within the City, accounting for $558 million in wages in Maryland and $188 million in Baltimore.
Among other important findings of the report: Morgan produced invention disclosures, new patent applications and other key innovation outputs at rates two to nine times higher than the U.S. average, per $10 million of research expenditures; 17% of Morgan alumni are employed in STEM fields, compared with 11% for all Maryland institutions of higher education; and 60% of the University’s economic and employment impact occurs in Baltimore City.
