Harvard Receives $100M for International Programs, Arts

David Rockefeller ’36, the grandson of the famous oil magnate and a longtime Harvard benefactor, has donated $100 million to the University.

The gift will support international programs and the expansion of arts education, a priority of University President Drew G. Faust, who appointed a task force to examine the place of the arts at Harvard last year.

The gift, which was first reported in The New York Times, is tied for the largest ever given to Harvard: in 2005, Eli and Edythe Broad donated $100 million gift for genetic research at the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute.

While Rockefeller, 92, has given generously to Harvard in the past—he donated a total of $25 million to support Harvard’s Latin American studies center, which bears his name—the newest gift appears to be one that he withheld following the departure of former University President Lawrence H. Summers in 2006.

Rockefeller had withheld a $75 million gift to fund study-abroad trips for undergraduates in need of financial aid, according to a 2006 story in The Wall Street Journal by Zachary M. Seward ’07-’09, a Crimson news writer. The gift had been a crucial part of Summers’ plan to extend Harvard’s global reach, but because of his resignation, Rockefeller cancelled the large gift and gave $10 million to the Latin American studies center instead.

Seventy percent of the gift will be devoted to international programs, and the remaining portion will be used to fund arts programs, The Times reported. Harvard will not receive the $100 million until Rockefeller's death but will receive $2.5 million per year until then, meaning that the total value of the donation could end up being well over $100 million.

The donation comes as the Committee on University Resources, which is composed of individuals who have given $1 million or more to Harvard, convenes at the Charles Hotel this weekend.

—Check The Crimson.com for more updates.
—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani contributed to the reporting of this story.