Miami University lands record $100 million gift for its business school
Photo: Miami UniversityMiami University will receive up to $100 million from the Farmer Family Foundation for its Farmer School of Business — the largest gift in the university's 217-year history, President Gregory Crawford announced Thursday at his annual State of the University address in Oxford.
The foundation, established by the late Miami alumnus and Cintas founder Richard T. "Dick" Farmer, will contribute the money over the next decade, starting with $55 million over the next three years. The university says the gift is also one of the three largest ever made to a public undergraduate business school in the United States.
"This extraordinary gift is the largest in Miami's history," Crawford said in announcing the commitment, which also carried the university across the finish line of its $1 billion fundraising campaign, "For love. For honor. For those who will."
The money will advance the business school's strategic priorities, including improving students' career readiness through training in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, along with quantitative skills, technology and experiential learning, according to the university.
Built into the commitment is a $25 million matching fund meant to bring other donors in behind the school. The foundation will match new gifts of $25,000 or more dollar for dollar, up to $2.5 million from any single donor. Not all of the $100 million is guaranteed: Miami says it must earn the match, and future funding will largely depend on the Farmer School continuing to meet key performance metrics. The terms of the remaining $45 million are still to be determined.
The Farmer family has backed the business school for more than three decades. Dick Farmer and his wife, fellow Miami alum Joyce Farmer, made the cornerstone gift that put the family's name on the school in 1992, served as the lead donors in the construction of the Farmer School of Business building in 2005, and gave another $40 million in 2016 — then the largest gift in the university's history.
The Farmer School serves more than 5,000 students and ranks 14th among public schools in Poets&Quants' 2026 Best Undergraduate Business Schools list.
Sources: The Cincinnati Enquirer, "Miami U alum is granting largest donation in university's history" (Nov. 5, 2026); Inside Higher Ed, "Miami U. Announces $100M Gift for Business School" (Nov. 6, 2026); Poets&Quants, "Miami University's Farmer School Lands Up To $100 Million From Its Namesake Family" (Nov. 5, 2026).
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