Loyola University Chicago Receives Record $100 Million Gift

Loyola University Chicago has announced that it’s received the largest private donation in its history – a $100 million gift from John and Kathy Schreiber. The gift will be used to establish full scholarships including room and board as well as fund a set of wraparound supports for Black, Latino, first generation, and other ethnically and racially diverse students who’ve been historically underrepresented in higher education.

The University said that it and the Schreibers were aiming to create a $500 million endowment that would make the scholarship resources permanent. The Schreibers’ gift is the first for this endowment, which, when fully funded, could support hundreds of Loyola students a year.

“Students with talent, grit, and promising leadership potential are, far too often, left out of life-changing scholarship opportunities and services due to circumstances beyond their control. At Loyola Chicago, our Jesuit, Catholic mission is to seek out and support anyone who is traditionally underserved and embrace those willing to work hard and thrive,” said Dr. Jo Ann Rooney, president of Loyola University Chicago, in the school’s news release.

She added that the university was “deeply grateful to John and Kathy Schreiber for this transformational investment in the future of promising students,” describing it as a gift that “creates opportunity, renews hope, and begins to holistically address and remove systemic barriers to student success and opportunity while inspiring others to take action.”

Along with paying for students’ tuition and room and board, the Schreiber’s gift will also help cover the costs of a comprehensive set of services including:

• mentors, academic support staff, social work and wellness counselors, and career development advisors,
• additional resources often needed by students such as an on-campus food pantry, housing assistance and other support,
• a student community/cohort model that will feature social events, networking functions, and opportunities to live and study together.

In the university’s announcement, John Schreiber, a 1968 graduate of Loyola, said that he had “long been inspired by the pursuit of excellence grounded in a Jesuit, Catholic mission that I’ve seen at Loyola. Kathy and I felt called to help level the playing field for students who face far higher barriers to opportunities and to give these students access to an education at Loyola that provides limitless possibilities for their futures.”

In addition to the scholarships and related student services, the Schreiber donation will also help establish the endowed Schreiber Venture Fund for Social Enterprise which will offer competitive seed grants or early operating support to teams of Loyola faculty and students.

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John and Kathy Schreiber have been long-time supporters of Loyola University in addition to other philanthropic causes. In 2017, they gave $6 million to fund scholarships for undocumented students of Arrupe College, an associate’s degree program that Loyola developed. Among their other gifts, they donated $10 million in 2014 to Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business, and in recognition of that gift, the building that houses the business school was named the John and Kathy Schreiber Center. Mr. Schreiber has served on Loyola’s Board of Trustees since 2014,

Following his graduation from Loyola, John Schreiber earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He went on to become the co-founder of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors, where he oversaw Blackstone’s real estate investments from its founding in 1992 to his retirement in 2015.