Harvard University has received the largest single donation in its 378-year history, with a $350m pledge to support the School of Public Health by a wealthy family anchored in Hong Kong real estate.
The gift from the Chan family represents more than 75 per cent of the School of Public Health’s most recent capital campaign goal, which seeks to raise $450m by 2018.
Dean Julio Frenk called it a transformative donation that would boost the school’s research programmes and student aid. The gift would help it discover and promote solutions to four global health threats: pandemics, harmful physical and social environments, humanitarian crises and failing health systems, school officials said.