Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, announced on Tuesday that his charitable organization is donating $600m million to four historically Black medical schools.
The landmark gifts, made by his Bloomberg Philanthropies group, will give $175m each to Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC, Meharry Medical College in Tennessee and Morehouse School of Medicine in Georgia. Another $75m is headed to Charles R Drew University of Medicine & Science in California, according to a news release from Bloomberg.
Class sizes and anticipated growth determined the funding levels, the organization said, adding that an extra $5m will be given to support a new medical school in New Orleans being created by Xavier University of Louisiana – another historically Black institution – and Ochsner Health, a prominent hospital network in that region.
Bloomberg Philanthropies said that the funding – which will more than double three of the four medical schools’ endowments – will “fuel the historically Black medical schools’ long-established commitments to diversifying the medical field and training the next generation of doctors”. It will also strengthen the school’s financial stabilities and institutional capacity “to respond to the rising costs of tuition, innovative research, and operations”, according to the organization.
Bloomberg said in a statement: “We have much more to do to build a country where every person, regardless of race, has equal access to quality healthcare – and where students from all backgrounds can pursue their dreams.”
The 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidate said: “Addressing health disparities and underrepresentation in the medical field are critical challenges, and Bloomberg Philanthropies is dedicated to making a difference.
“By building on our previous support, this gift will empower new generations of Black doctors to create a healthier and more equitable future for our country.”
The Howard University president, Ben Vinson III, called the donation “transformational” on Tuesday – “not only for its impact on cultivating the next generation of health professionals, but for its visionary investment in the intergenerational wealth and health of our medical students and the communities they will serve”.
Dr James EK Hildreth, the president and chief executive officer of Meharry Medical College, described the investment as “extraordinary”, adding that it underscored “the importance of creating a healthcare system that better reflects the people and communities it serves”.
The investment of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood initiative, which the organization says seeks to “advance racial wealth equity including addressing systemic underinvestment in Black institutions and communities”.
This is not the first donation that Bloomberg Philanthropies has given to the four historically Black medical schools in recent years.
In 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave the four historically Black medical schools $100m, which at the time was the largest philanthropic gift from a single donor to these institutions. The 2020 donation, Bloomberg Philanthropies said on Tuesday, helped reduce the student debt of nearly 1,000 future Black doctors.
And in 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies gave an additional $6m to the four historically Black medical schools to expand their efforts to provide access to Covid-19 vaccines to underserved populations in their local communities.
Bloomberg has also donated to other medical schools, including a $1bn donation to Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University in July. The donation, made by the former mayor’s foundation and set to take effect this fall, will cover 100% of tuition for medical students whose families earn less than $300,000 a year – and cover all living expenses and fees for those who earn less than $175,000.
Bloomberg previously donated $1.8bn to the university in 2018 for undergraduate financial aid. Bloomberg obtained his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins in 1964.