Gifts Roundup: 2 TV Celebrities and a Former Politician Give Millions for Scholarships

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

College Advising Corps

Steve and Connie Ballmer gave $20 million to help the nonprofit enroll 1 million low-income, first-generation students in college by 2025.

An early Microsoft employee, Steve Ballmer served as chief executive of the software giant from 2000 to 2014. The Ballmers appeared on the Chronicle’s 2014 Philanthropy 50 list of the most generous donors.

Loras College

The William Wilkie left more than $3.2 million to endow a half dozen programs and awards.

Wilkie was a priest and history professor at Loras. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and fine arts from the college in 1950. He died last year at age 87.

The money will go to the William E. Wilkie Liturgical Program, William E. Wilkie Double Major Scholarship, Wilkie Classic Film Collection Fund, Professor William Green Senior History Award, Monsignor William D. Green Award, and the Roger Rechenmacher Scholarship Award for Creativity.

Mount Saint Mary’s University

Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan donated $2 million through his Riordan Foundation to back nursing education.

The donation creates the Riordan Fund for the Future of Nursing Education and pays for new health and wellness programs.

Riordan is an investment banker who served as mayor of Los Angeles from 1993 to 2001 and as California’s Secretary of Education from 2003 to 2005.

Clark Atlanta University

Television producer and writer Kenya Barris, and his wife, Rainbow Barris, gave $1 million to establish the Kenya and Rainbow Barris Annual Scholarship Award.

Half of the gift will go toward mass-media arts majors, and half will back students majoring in biology.

Kenya Barris created the television series Black-ish and was a co-creator of the reality television show America’s Next Top Model. He graduated from the university in 1996 with a degree in mass-media arts and has written for a variety of television shows including Sister, Sister; Girlfriends; The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show; and others.

Rainbow Barris is an anesthesiologist and graduated from the university in 1996 with a degree in biology.

Drury University

Retired television game-show host Bob Barker donated $1 million to bolster the school’s Animal Studies Program.

Of the total, $600,000 will establish the Dorothy Jo Barker Endowed Scholarship Fund for students pursuing a minor or credential in Animal Studies at Drury, while $400,000 will create the Dorothy Jo Barker Endowed Internship Fund to back experiential learning grants for students in the program.

Barker hosted hosting CBS’s The Price Is Right from 1972 to 2007. He graduated from Drury in 1947. Including this latest gift, he has donated a total of $3.1 million since 2008 to the Animal Studies program at his alma mater.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.