Billionaire Jamie Dimon and his wife Judith give $12 million to 12 Black colleges

Jamie Dimon, the billionaire chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and his wife, Judith, have donated $12 million to 12 historically Black colleges and universities, one of the couple's most visible philanthropic gifts to date.

The donation, announced by the United Negro College Fund on August 20, was made through the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation and establishes the Dimon Fund to Advance Economic Opportunity. It forms part of the UNCF's $1.5 billion capital campaign and will provide permanent endowment money to the selected schools, matched by a $5 million contribution from the fund's pooled endowment.

"Our system of HBCUs continue to serve as the springboard to success for thousands of students in pursuit of the American Dream," the Dimons said in a joint statement, describing themselves as the children of first-generation high school and college graduates.

The 12 recipients include Tuskegee University, Dillard University, Shaw University, Johnson C. Smith University and Benedict College, spread across the American South and beyond. The fund said the schools were chosen for their leadership and their record of preparing teachers, nurses and other healthcare workers, fields in which the colleges educate large numbers of first-generation students.

Rather than backing a single program, the gift flows into permanent endowments, which the fund argues gives the schools room to plan for decades instead of chasing donations year to year.

The approach mirrors the Dimons' wider giving. Their foundation, set up in 1996, paid out more than $9 million in 2024, according to public filings, much of it toward public schools and career training. Judith Dimon, the foundation's president, oversees work focused on career-connected learning for New York City public school students, including an initiative aimed at giving 100,000 young people hands-on job experience by 2030. Jamie Dimon has previously served on the UNCF's board.

The gift lands at a moment of uncertainty over federal support for Black colleges. Backers say private donors have grown more important as government funding has become less predictable, with the philanthropist MacKenzie Scott having given more than $700 million to HBCUs and related groups in recent years.

The US Education Department announced a $495 million increase in funding for HBCUs and tribally controlled colleges for the 2025 fiscal year, though a lengthy government shutdown that began in October disrupted parts of the grant-making process before it was resolved.