Small Kansas college gets $500 million endowment that’s meant to draw more donations

A $25 million gift to the small liberal arts McPherson College earlier this year was the largest the college had received. Emphasis on was.

That was before a whopping $500 million gift by an anonymous donor, intended to match other donations 2 to 1.

California philanthropist Melanie Lundquist told a packed crowd of alumni, faculty and students on Friday at the Kansas Leadership Center that she and her husband were happy to have their $25 million gift surpassed. They also announced another gift.

“We want to underscore the importance of this matching grant, we want to strengthen our commitment to McPherson College. And President (Michael) Schneider, count us in for another $25 million,” Lundquist said as the crowd applauded. “It’s still less zeroes.”

The crowd laughed.

Lundquist’s husband, Richard Lundquist, who made his wealth as a real estate developer in California, was also in attendance. Melanie Lundquist said she was given permission to speak for the anonymous donor.

“They’ve chosen to remain anonymous because they value their privacy,” she said. “But more importantly than that, their anonymity is because they are absolutely adamant that attention be placed on the students and the good work at McPherson College, not themselves.”

Schneider wouldn’t say if the donor has a tie to the 135-year-old college or even Kansas. The Lundquists found the college through its unique auto restoration program.

The $500 million in matching funds — raising $2 for every $1 dollar donated — has already amounted to $390 million in pledges for the college’s endowment (with $260 million of that from the anonymous donor). There’s another possible $360 million on the table.

The small college of 800 students has until June 30 to raise $120 million, which would max out the anonymous gift with the double matching of another $240 million — bringing the grand total to $750 million.

The college currently has an endowment worth $53.5 million. The goal is to bring it to $1 billion.

The $500 million is a huge gift for any higher education institution.

The largest gift to Harvard University — an Ivy League school with 43 times more students than McPherson and alumni that includes the late President John F. Kennedy — is also $500 million, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. The organization tracks the largest gifts to higher education since 1967.

That $500 million came from one of the wealthiest couples in America: Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped out of Harvard University to launch Facebook, and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

A story by Bloomberg says the pledge to McPherson College “has the power to transform McPherson … into one of the richest liberal arts colleges in the US – up there with the likes of Vassar, Hamilton and Bryn Mawr.”

So why McPherson College?

The Lundquists are part of The Giving Pledge, a group started by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates that invited billionaires to give away most of their wealth either during their lives or in their will.

The Lundquists are also car enthusiasts.

What makes McPherson College different from others is an automotive restoration technology program that offers the only four-year degree in the country, the college says.

So naturally, the Lundquists and McPherson College students gravitate toward Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance car show in California.

“It’s like the Super Bowl for the collector car world,” Schneider said.

He said McPherson students have shown restored cars at the event and that’s part of how the college connected with the Lundquists. A chair of the college’s automotive restoration program board also restores the Lundquists’ classic cars, he said.

Students are currently restoring a 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300 S Cabriolet to compete in the 2023 Concours d’Elegance.

The Lundquists have donated a rare 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona worth more than $600,000 to the college. It’s currently on display at the college but also serves an educational purpose.

Other vehicles given to the college by donors include a 1914 Ford Model T Speedster and a 1956 Austin Healey 100 M Le Mans.

The unique auto program also attracted car enthusiast and former late-night talk show host Jay Leno to the college. Leno has met with students and faculty multiple times and has two endowed scholarships through the college, McPherson College spokesperson Tina Goodwin said.

When asked why they donated to McPherson College, Melanie Lundquist said she and her husband both went to large universities, but the small liberal arts college experience can offer something unique and help create well-rounded students. Liberal arts colleges often require students to take a wider range of classes and have smaller classrooms.

She said they also believe in the leadership and mission of McPherson College.

U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, pointed to how students can become well-rounded after senior Victoria Bruno eloquently spoke about how McPherson College helped her land her dream job.

Moran said he assumed she would have majored in marketing by the way she spoke.

Bruno grew up in Los Angeles and was a child actor. Early on, her dream was to make enough money in acting to one day to buy an older car that she could work on. Then she googled and found out about the four-year auto program at McPherson College.

Since then, she has been putting back together engine motors in her apartment.

And what’s the dream job the petite Californian already landed? She’s going to be restoring vintage Ferraris for well-esteemed Patrick Ottis Co. in California. Bruno said she hopes to break stereotypes of what a mechanic should look like.

Moran also thanked the Lundquists for both of their donations. About the first $25 million, he said:

“In Kansas, what we would say is you have primed the pump” that led to the $500 million.

He talked about how unique McPherson College is to have attracted the California couple’s attention. He also touted Schneider’s fundraising ability, saying that they could use him in Washington where they are good at spending but not so much at raising money.

Can they raise the rest?

Schneider was optimistic that they could raise the remaining $120 million to get all of the matching donation. He enthusiastically told the crowd of alumni, faculty and students that he’d see them back there in July, meaning they would be announcing that they hit their goal.

McPherson College has lot of alumni and a vast donor base that stretches across lots of industries, he said, and a team of people that will try and tap into that to reach the goal.

When asked by the media if the money would change the small campus into something much different, he said there is no intention of becoming a large school.

“We are headed in the right direction,” he said. “ And our board values the liberal arts, I don’t see that changing. What this allows us to do is put our work on a new trajectory.”

Schneider’s final words to the crowd were met with great enthusiasm.

“This is a great day for McPherson College,” he said. “And I’ll just leave you with this: It is a great day to be a Bulldog.”

He shook his fist in excitement as the 125-plus people in attendance stood and applauded.