Dan Gilbert, Jennifer Gilbert donate $15 million to Michigan State

Dan Gilbert is giving back to Michigan State University. In a major way.

The Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures founder and chairman and his wife, Jennifer Gilbert, announced Wednesday that they will give their alma mater $15 million toward the ongoing $20 million Breslin Center improvements and two academic entities, the Detroit Scholars Program and the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities.

“It’s an honor to be able to contribute, to help Michigan State University any way we can,” Gilbert said during a ceremony at a green-and-white decorated Quicken Loans’ headquarters on Woodward Avenue. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been talking. … These three areas are really really important to me, important to us, important to the university, important to Detroit.”

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Mark Hollis, Michigan State athletic director, would not discuss how the money would be divvied up. The donation is one of the largest to the university’s Empower Extraordinary campaign, which now has raised $226 million of the targeted $262 million for the athletic department since it began two years ago.

“You look what Dan has done down here in Detroit, and he’s re-energized and brought back some things,” MSU coach Tom Izzo said. “I look out at the Joe Louis (fist) and all the things you see, it’s all part of the same equation. It means the world to me.”

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said Gilbert, who is worth a reported $4.7 billion according to Forbes Magazine, previously has kept his donations to the university quiet.

“We’ve been talking together for a long time about what we could do for Detroit…,” Simon said. “It was really terrific that they agreed to do an announcement because typically it’s just not his style.”

A new program, the Detroit Scholars Program supports 109 Michigan State University students who come from “academically disadvantaged backgrounds,” according to the school.

The Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities at MSU helps nearly 2,000 higher-education students with visual or hearing impairments, mobility difficulties, learning disabilities or chronic health and mental health conditions or who are on the autism spectrum.

“It’s leadership investment of yourself, not just money, in order to transform others in your community and people you don’t know,” Simon said. “This gift we’re announcing today does all of those things.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari.

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