Michael Bloomberg giving $175M gift to Morehouse School of Medicine's endowment
UN Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Global Advisor to the Winners of The Earthshot Prize Michael R. Bloomberg speaks onstage during The Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit In Partnership with Bloo
ATLANTA - Michael Bloomberg’s organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, has committed $175 million to Atlanta's Morehouse School of Medicine as part of a $600 million gift to multiple historically Black medical schools across the country.
Speaking in New York at the annual convention of the National Medical Association, an organization that advocates for African American physicians, Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP, pointed to the closure in the last century of all but four historically Black medical schools, despite the well-documented impact that Black doctors have on improving health outcomes for Black patients.
"Lack of funding and support driven probably in no small part by prejudice and racism, have forced many to close their doors," Bloomberg said of those medical schools. "We cannot allow that to happen again, and this gift will help ensure it doesn’t."
Morehouse School Of Medicine (founded in 1975) on July 18, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
The gifts are among the largest private donations to any historically Black college or university. Along with the gift to Atlanta University, $175 million will go to the Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College. Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science will receive $75 million. Xavier University of Louisiana, which is opening a new medical school, will also receive a $5 million grant.
The donations will more than double the size of three of the medical schools’ endowments, Bloomberg Philanthropies said. Donations to endowments are invested with the annual returns going into an organization’s budget. Endowments can reduce financial pressure and, depending on restrictions, offer nonprofits more funds for discretionary spending.
The commitment follows a $1 billion pledge Bloomberg made in July to Johns Hopkins University that will mean most medical students there will no longer pay tuition. The four historically Black medical schools are still deciding with Bloomberg Philanthropies how the latest gifts to their endowments will be used, said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative.
In 2020, Bloomberg granted the same medical schools a total of $100 million that mostly went to reducing the debt load of enrolled students, who schools said were in serious danger of not continuing because of the financial burdens compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When we talked about helping to secure and support the next generation of Black doctors, we meant that literally," Ezediaro said.
Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine, said that gift relieved $100,000 on average in debt for enrolled medical students. She said the gift has helped her school significantly increase its fundraising.
"But our endowment and the size of our endowment has continued to be a challenge, and we’ve been very vocal about that. And he heard us," she said of Bloomberg and the latest donation.
Dr. William Ross, an orthopedic surgeon from Atlanta and a graduate of Meharry Medical College, has been coming to the National Medical Association conferences since he was a child with his father, who was also a physician. He said he could testify to the high quality of education at the schools, despite the bare minimum of resources and facilities.
"If we are as individuals to overcome health care disparities, it really does take collaboration between folks who have funding and those who need funding and a willingness to share that funding," he said in New York.
Black doctors hope historic HBCU donation can address shortage
Montgomery Rice was there at the National Medical Association’s conference in New York on Tuesday morning where billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg announced the massive donation.
"For three of us, it essentially doubles our endowment," Montgomery Rice told FOX 5.
"It’s really significant for us to get a gift that’s $175 million which allows us the opportunity to use more dollars for student scholarships, we plan to use some of the dollars for innovative programs," she said.
The donation comes just four years after Bloomberg gifted Morehouse $25 million to help pay off student loan debt.
"Today, graduates from medical school carry a tremendous debt load," said Dr. Cecil Bennett.
Bennett, the medical director at Newnan Family Medicine Associates, is a graduate of Morehouse School of Medicine and one of the Black doctors who make up just 5.7% of all practicing physicians.
"I’ve been a board-certified physician for over 20 years, and I would not be here if it weren’t for Morehouse School of Medicine."
He says research shows that Black people have better health outcomes and receive medical care more frequently when they are treated by Black physicians. Black patients are also 34% more likely to receive preventative care if seen by Black doctors.
"Additional scholarship funding that would allow physicians to go into primary care specialties is critical," he stated.
Bennett tells FOX 5 he hopes the additional funding to his alma mater will help increase the ranks among Black doctors and bring them closer to reflecting the Black Americans that represent 13% of the total US population.
That previous donation to Morehouse School of Medicine helped reduce student debt from 43% of students having over $250,000 in loans to just 19%.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.