Jenny Darroch, dean of the Farmer School of Business, center on the bench, with students from the Business Student Advisory Council in front of the school at Miami University. The Farmer Family Foundation plans to give the university’s Farmer School of Business up to $100 million over the next decade, the largest donation in Miami’s 217-year history. Courtesy photo
The family that built Cintas Corp. is making its biggest bet yet on Miami University’s business school.
The Farmer Family Foundation plans to give the Farmer School of Business as much as $100 million over the next decade, Miami President Gregory Crawford announced, with the first $55 million coming in the next three years. The university says the donation is the largest in its 217-year history and one of the three biggest ever made to a public undergraduate business school in the United States.
It also pushed Miami to the $1 billion target of its fundraising campaign, “For love. For honor. For those who will.”
A BIGGER PUSH ON CAREERS & TECH
“We are incredibly grateful to the Farmer family and the foundation for their unwavering dedication to our university,” Crawford says in a news release. “This extraordinary gift is the largest in Miami’s history and will enable the Farmer School of Business to continue its trajectory as one of the most distinguished business schools both nationally and worldwide. Generations of Miami students will benefit from their remarkable generosity.”
The money is aimed largely at student outcomes. Dean Jenny Darroch says part of it will speed up career preparation, with the goal of giving every student a personalized plan built around their values, high-stakes experiences and current, in-demand skills. It could also pay for industry certifications, global experiential learning and training in emerging technologies.
The foundation’s commitment also includes a $25 million matching gift meant to bring other donors in behind priorities such as quantitative skills, technology, experiential learning and career readiness. Miami tells Poets&Quants the foundation will match gifts to the school 1:1, covering donations of $25,000 or more and up to $2.5 million from any one donor.
Not all of the $100 million is guaranteed. Miami says it must earn the match, and that future funding will largely depend on the Farmer School continuing to meet key performance metrics, which the university says it and the foundation have “full confidence” it will do. The terms of the remaining $45 million are still to be determined.
“This gift isn’t about changing who we are; it’s about amplifying what we already do best,” Darroch says in the news release. “We have always been a school that prides itself on being market-responsive and student-focused. This incredible investment from the Farmer Family Foundation allows us to move at the pace of business so we can stay at the forefront of business education.”
‘KNOW WHEN TO TRUST THEM, WHEN TO QUESTION THEM’
Artificial intelligence adds urgency to that work, she says, because it is changing where every career begins.
“Our job is not simply to introduce students to those tools, but to develop leaders who know when to trust them, when to question them, and how to use them responsibly,” says Darroch. “This investment allows us to embed data and tech-fluency into every corner of our student experience.”
She adds that the school now has the means to expand its student support model across the board.
“We have already built the foundation for world-class student support,” says Darroch. “This gift provides the momentum to fully scale that model. We are opening doors to mentors and experiences that were previously out of reach. We are embedding high-impact career practices into every aspect of the student experience. And we will be able to precisely track our students’ progress. This ensures every student can access the full breadth of the Farmer resources and translate those opportunities into impactful careers.”
3 DECADES OF FARMER GIVING
The family’s ties to the school run deep. Richard T. “Dick” Farmer earned a business degree from Miami in 1956 and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before joining his family’s business. He went on to found what became Cintas in 1968, retiring as CEO and chairman in 2009. Joyce Farmer earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Miami in 1957.
The couple made the cornerstone gift to the business school in 1992. The foundation was the lead donor for the Farmer School’s building in 2005, and a $40 million gift nearly a decade later stood as the largest in the university’s history until now.
“The Farmer family has a long and treasured relationship with Miami University,” says Scott Farmer, the couple’s son and executive chairman of Cintas. “Our parents were shaped by their time at Miami, and a love of the university was passed down to their three children. We are thrilled that the Farmer Family Foundation can ensure the Farmer School of Business continues to define excellence and meet the challenges of tomorrow by preparing the type of leaders the world needs.”
Joyce Farmer, a foundation trustee, says the family’s connection to the school remains personal.
“Miami has provided so many incredible memories for our family, and we are so happy to continue to support the Farmer School of Business,” she says. “From the wonderful faculty to the impressive and hard-working students, the Farmer School is truly one of the top business schools in the country. We take great pride in the innovation and talent that is associated with the Farmer School of Business.”
Foundation trustee Robert Coletti frames the gift as a bet on students.
“The Farmer School of Business has long been recognized as a leader in business education, delivering transformational experiences for its students,” says Coletti. “The Farmer Family Foundation is proud to be a part of continuing that momentum by investing in its students.”
The Farmer School serves more than 5,000 students and ranks 14th among public schools in Poets&Quants’ 2026 Best Undergraduate Business Schools list.
Largest Philanthropic Gifts To Business Schools |
|||
SCHOOL |
AMOUNT |
DONOR |
YEAR |
| Chicago’s Booth School of Business | $300 million | David Booth | 2008 |
| University of Illinois’s Gies College of Business | $250 million | Larry Gies | 2017, 2026 |
| Michigan’s Ross School of Business | $250 million | Stephen Ross |
2004, 2013, 2017
|
| University of Hawai’i-Mānoa Shidler College of Business | $228 million | Jay H. Shidler | 2014, 2017 |
| Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business | $150 million | H. Fisk Johnson | 2017 |
| Stanford Graduate School of Business | $150 million | Robert & Dorothy King | 2011 |
| UCLA Anderson School of Management | $142 million | John & Marion Anderson |
1987, 2011, 2015
|
| Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School | $125 million | W. P. Carey Foundation |
2006, 2020, 2026
|
| Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business | $122 million | David Tepper | 2004, 2013 |
| Stanford Graduate School of Business | $105 million | Philip Knight | 2006 |
| Tennessee Haslam College of Business | $100 million | Dee & Jimmy Haslam | 2026 |
| Yale School of Management | $100 million | Eli & Edythe Broad | 2019 |
| UC-San Diego Rady School of Management | $100 million | Ernest Rady | 2015 |
| Florida State College of Business | $100 million | Jim Moran | 2015 |
| Columbia Business School | $100 million | Ronald Perelman | 2013 |
| Columbia Business School | $100 million | Henry Kravis | 2010 |
| Indiana Kelley School of Business | $100 million | Jeffrey H. and Benita L. Thomasson | 2026 |
| Miami Farmer School of Business | Up to $100 million | Farmer Family Foundation | 2026 |
| Emory University’s Goizueta Business School | $95 million | The Goizueta Foundation | 1997-2019 |
| New York University Stern School of Business | $86 million | Leonard Stern |
1988, 2015, 2021
|
| Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School | $80 million | David Atkinson | 2010 |
| Arizona State’s Carey School of Business | $75 million | William Carey | 2003, 2019 |
| Chicago Booth | $75 million | Amy & Richard Wallman | 2017 |
| Florida’s Warrington College of Business | $75 million | Al & Judy Warrington | 2014 |
| Delaware’s Lerner College of Business | $71.5 million | Robert & Kathleen Siegfried | 2025 |
| Virginia’s Darden School of Business | $68 million | Frank & Marjorie Sands | 2019 |
| Virginia’s Darden School of Business | $62 million | Frank Batten | 1999 |
| Northeastern’s D’Amore-McKim School | $60 million | Richard D’Amore & Alan McKim | 2012 |
| Thunderbird School of Management | $60 million | Sam & Rita Garvin | 2004 |
| Babson College | $50 million | Arthur Blank | 2019 |
| Purdue’s Daniels School of Business | $50 million | Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation | 2023 |
| Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business | $50 million | David & Carolyn Miller | 2019 |
| University of San Diego Knauss School of Business | $50 million | Ellie & Don Knauss | 2021 |
| Tel Aviv Coller School of Management | $50 million | Jeremy Coller | 2016 |
| Boston University’s Questrom School | $50 million | Allen & Kelli Questrom | 2015 |
| New York University Stern School of Business | $50 million | William & Marjorie Berkley | 2021 |
| University of Pennsylvania Wharton School | $50 million | Marc & Carolyn Rowan | 2018 |
| Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business | $50 million | Jim Haslam & family | 2014 |
| Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business | $50 million | Ernest Scheller | 2012 |
| Harvard Business School | $50 million | Tata Group | 2010 |
| Yale School of Management | $50 million | Ned Evans | 2010 |
| Texas’ McCombs School of Business | $50 million | Red McCombs | 2000 |
| Arkansas’ Walton College of Business | $50 million | The Walton Family | 1998 |
| Iowa State University Debbie and Jerry Ivy College of Business | $50 million | Debbie & Jerry Ivy | 2017 |
DON’T MISS LARRY GIES PLEDGES ANOTHER $100 MILLION TO HIS NAMESAKE B-SCHOOL
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