Miami University announced Thursday that it has landed a commitment of up to $100 million from the Farmer Family Foundation, which officials are calling the largest gift in the 217-year-old school's history. The money is earmarked for the Farmer School of Business and is expected to fund everything from career preparation to new technology and experiential learning programs over the next decade.
President Gregory Crawford announced the donation at the end of his State of the University address on Nov. 5, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Accounts of the commitment vary slightly: Forbes reported Miami received a $100 million commitment from the foundation, while Poets&Quants for Undergrads described it as a plan to give up to $100 million over the next decade, with $55 million arriving over the first three years and terms for the remaining $45 million still to be determined.
Matching Funds Target Career Readiness
Regardless of how the full figure ultimately plays out, the first $55 million is set, and it comes bundled with a $25 million matching component, per the same account from Poets&Quants for Undergrads. Miami says the foundation will match school donations of $25,000 or more dollar-for-dollar, up to $2.5 million from any single donor, with the matching funds steered toward quantitative skills, technology, experiential learning and career readiness.
Farmer School of Business Dean Jenny Darroch said the investment will help define the school's next era of excellence, and that the goal is to give every student a personalized career-preparation plan. Darroch also pointed to artificial intelligence as a driving force behind the urgency, noting that it is changing where every career begins. The gift could help students earn industry certifications, take part in global experiential learning and build skills in emerging technologies, according to the same Enquirer report.
A Family's Decades-Long Ties to Miami
The Farmer name has been attached to Miami's business school for decades. Dick Farmer graduated from Miami in 1956 with a business degree, served in the U.S. Marine Corps, and then joined his family's business before founding what would become Cintas in 1968; he retired as the company's CEO and chairman in 2009. His wife, Joyce Barnes Farmer, earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education from Miami in 1957, according to Miami University.
The couple provided the cornerstone gift to Miami's School of Business in 1992, and the Farmer Family Foundation later served as the lead donor for construction of the Farmer School of Business building in 2005. Forbes places a $30 million contribution in 2025, with $25 million going toward construction. In 2016, the Farmers and their foundation gave another $40 million, which the university at the time called the largest gift from any single foundation or individual in its 207-year history.
Their son, Scott Farmer, now serves as executive chairman of Cincinnati-based Cintas Corporation. He said the latest donation reflects his family's long and deep ties with Miami, a connection reflected in major support for the business school in 1992, 2005 and 2016, as well as the current commitment.
Pushing a $1 Billion Campaign Over the Line
Miami says the new commitment also pushed the university's broader fundraising campaign to its $1 billion target, according to the report from Poets&Quants for Undergrads. University officials describe the gift as ranking among the three largest ever made to a public undergraduate business school in the United States.
The size of the commitment fits a broader pattern of nine-figure gifts flowing into business schools nationally. Higher Ed Dive, which tracks gifts and commitments of $100 million or more to higher education institutions, has also logged a $130 million donation from alumni Dee and Jimmy Haslam to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with $100 million of that directed to its Haslam College of Business. The outlet also reported that Larry Gies pledged $100 million in matching funds to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's business college as part of a $200 million fundraising push, and that Drexel University received a $112.6 million gift from trustee and alum Nick Howley and his family for its college of engineering and computer science.
Nationally, giving to U.S. colleges and universities reached $78.8 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, up 4% from the prior year, according to the CASE Council for Advancement and Support of Education. That same survey found 81% of contributions were designated for specific uses, and that roughly 60% of institutions reported growth in cash funds received, with 57% reporting increases in new funds committed through pledges and outright gifts.
As first reported by Journal-News.com, the Farmer School of Business plans to embed high-impact career practices throughout the student experience as it puts the new funding to work. For a school whose name has carried the Farmer family's imprint since the early 1990s, the latest commitment extends a relationship that has now helped build the business school, expand its programs, and carry Miami's broader fundraising campaign across the finish line.
