Montana Governor Gianforte and Wife Give $50 Million to State U.

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his wife, Connie, pledged more than $425 million through Ballmer Group Philanthropy to create the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health. The new research center will bring together experts in children’s mental health and related fields to work with Oregon’s public school systems, families, nonprofits, and state agencies to address mental-health issues among children and youths in the state.

Connie Ballmer earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the university in 1984 and served on its Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2021. Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014 and now owns the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team. The couple are longtime donors and have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of biggest donors several times in recent years.

Montana State University

Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and his wife, Susan, gave $50 million through their Gianforte Family Foundation to pay for a new building to house the Gianforte School of Computing. It will bring under one roof the school’s computer science, cybersecurity, optics and photonics, electrical and computer engineering, and related programs.

The couple founded RightNow Technologies in Bozeman, Mont., in 1997 and sold the cloud-computing company to Oracle in 2012 for $1.8 billion. The School of Computing was named for them when they donated $8 million in 2016.

In 2017, Greg Gianforte was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He attracted attention the night before the election when he physically attacked a reporter. He eventually pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and later apologized to the reporter. In 2020, he ran for governor of Montana and won. He became the state’s governor on January 4, 2021.

University of Alabama

Clay and Cameron Smith and Clay’s mother, Linda Smith, pledged $20 million toward the university’s capital campaign to name the university’s new arts center the Smith Family Center for the Performing Arts.

The family is giving the gift in memory of Mark Smith, Linda Smith’s late husband and Clay Smith’s father. Mark Smith co-founded the telecommunications company Adtran in Huntsville, Ala., in 1986; he died in 2007.

“Music and the arts have impacted our family tremendously,” Clay Smith said in a news release. “They defined my father, and they helped define me.”

Clay Smith is CEO of M.C. Smith Realty, a real-estate investment company he founded in 2003. He also leads the family office, Smith Asset Management Company. He graduated from the university’s Culverhouse College of Business.

Mercy Ships

Michael and Susan Dell pledged to match donations of up to $18 million from other donors. They will give the money through a donor-advised fund at Vanguard Charitable that they have created for the purpose.

The money will support the operating expenses of the charity, which uses hospital ships to deliver free health care and other services to people in developing countries. Michael Dell founded and leads the technology company Dell in Austin, Tex.

Michigan State University

Martin Vanderploeg gave $17 million, of which nearly $12 million will be used to establish the Vanderploeg Scholars Program, which will provide scholarships and other assistance to first-generation students. He has directed the remaining $5 million to the College of Engineering to create three endowed professorships and to back research.

Vanderploeg co-founded Workiva, a cloud-based software company, and Engineering Animations, a design-software company used for medical and forensic applications. He previously served as a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, where he founded and directed the Visualization Laboratory. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from MSU.

Marquette University

Marcus and Bobbi Lemonis gave $15 million to establish the Lemonis Center for Student Success, which will house programs aimed at connecting students with a network of advisers, mentors, resources, and services throughout their time at the university.

Marcus Lemonis leads a number of companies including Camping World, Good Sam Enterprises, and Gander RV. He also hosts several reality television shows, including The Profit, a show about saving small businesses. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the university in 1995.

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