Bloomberg’s $1.8 Billion Gift-Quake Donation Dwarfed Most Nonprofits’ Capital Campaigns

It didn’t seem that long ago that fundraisers gasped at the first-ever billion- dollar capital campaign. It was kind of a big deal when in 2012 Stanford University became the first school to raise $1 billion in one year. Former New York City Mayor and potential 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg took the fundraising arms race to the next level when he announced a $1.8-billion gift to his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. It’s believed to be the largest donation ever made to an educational institution in the United States. The funds will be devoted exclusively to financial aid. The gift is being made in one lump sum. According to Rachel Nagler, a spokesperson for Bloomberg Philanthropies, the gift will be delivered “as soon as possible.” Logistics are still being worked out but the university will receive the money “in works or months, certainly not years,” she said. Bloomberg Philanthropies targets education, the arts, environment and government innovation.