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Jamie and Judith Dimon donate $12 million to 12 HBCUs
The James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation has donated $12 million to 12 historically Black colleges and universities through the United Negro College Fund, establishing permanent endowments to support economic opportunity for students.
Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan, and his wife, Judith, have donated $12 million to 12 historically Black colleges and universities through their private foundation. The gift, announced Aug. 20 by the United Negro College Fund, establishes The Dimon Fund to Advance Economic Opportunity and provides permanent endowment capital to the selected schools as part of UNCF's $1.5 billion capital campaign.
The schools receiving funding are Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.; Dillard University in New Orleans; Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Fla.; Huston-Tillotson University in Austin; Jarvis Christian University in Hawkins, Texas; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte; Miles College in Fairfield, Ala.; Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala.; Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C.; Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala.; and Voorhees University in Denmark, S.C.
UNCF said the 12 institutions were selected for their leadership and their records preparing teachers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, fields where HBCUs have strong outcomes for first-generation students. Rather than funding a single program, the donation flows into permanent endowments, which UNCF argues gives schools the freedom to plan for decades instead of seeking donations year to year.
«Our system of HBCUs continue to serve as the springboard to success for thousands of students in pursuit of the American Dream,» Jamie and Judith Dimon said in a joint statement. «As the children of first-generation high school and college graduates, we were imbued with a thirst for knowledge and a drive to succeed—principles that we have passed on to our own children and that we wish to share with all the students at the selected HBCUs.»
The James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation was established in 1996 and does not maintain a public website. According to ProPublica data, the private charitable organization donates millions of dollars each year to support education and economic mobility for young people. Its most recent tax filing shows that in 2024 the organization paid out more than $9 million across organizations mostly focused on public schools and career advancement.
Judith Dimon, the foundation's president, oversees grantmaking focused on career-connected learning for New York City public school students. The foundation helped launch FutureReadyNYC, an initiative aiming to give 100,000 students hands-on career experience by 2030. Jamie Dimon previously served on UNCF's board.
The gift arrives as federal support for HBCUs has become less certain. During the 43-day government shutdown that began Oct. 1, 2025, the Department of Education stopped issuing new grants and furloughed roughly 95% of staff who do not work on federal student aid. That left programs like the HBCU Capital Financing Program in limbo even as the department announced in September a $495 million increase for HBCUs and tribally controlled colleges and universities for fiscal year 2025.
The shutdown ended Nov. 12, but days after the government reopened, the department signed agreements handing billions in grant programs to other federal agencies, a move seen as aligned with the administration's stated goal of dissolving the Education Department. Some higher education experts have questioned the administration's commitment to these institutions. «If [the Trump administration] actually…cared about HBCUs and tribal colleges, then you would not see such a big attack on other sectors of higher education,» Mike Hoa Nguyen, an associate professor of education at UCLA, told The American Prospect in October 2025.
Other billionaire philanthropists have stepped in to fill the gap left by federal uncertainty. MacKenzie Scott has given more than $700 million to more than a dozen HBCUs and affiliated organizations. The Dimons' donation adds to that wave of private support for institutions that have long served as pathways to economic mobility for Black students.
