NU Receives Largest Gift Ever

Submitted by Northwestern University

Northwestern University has received the largest single gift in the University’s history. The gift of more than $100 million from alumna Roberta Buffett Elliott will create the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern President Morton Schapiro announced today (Jan. 28, 2015).

Mrs. Elliott, a 1954 Northwestern graduate, and her brother, Warren Buffett, the legendary financial investor and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, will be on hand at a panel discussion of global issues featuring Northwestern faculty and students that will be held at 4 p.m. today in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. The event is free and open to the entire campus community, as well as the public.

Elliott’s gift is part of We Will. The Campaign for Northwestern, the University’s $3.75 billion fundraising campaign, and increases her total giving to the Campaign to approximately $110 million. With this gift, the total amount raised for the Campaign has surpassed $2 billion, marking a new Northwestern milestone for campaign fundraising.

“Bertie’s extraordinary commitment and her unprecedented generosity to Northwestern will fundamentally transform every corner of the University’s global programming,” Schapiro said. “In our conversations over the past several months, Bertie and her husband, David, expressed their appreciation for what Northwestern has already been doing in terms of its global outreach, while recognizing that the University could have a much greater impact on the world with expanded and new programs.”