The Farmer Family Foundation plans to give up to $100 million over a decade to Miami University’s Farmer School of Business in Oxford, Ohio. President Gregory Crawford announced the gift on Nov. 5. Miami calls it the largest in its 217-year history and one of the three largest ever announced for a U.S. public undergraduate business school. The commitment pushed the university past its $1 billion fundraising goal.
The plan calls for $55 million over the first three years and includes a $25 million challenge match. Miami told Poets&Quants that the foundation would match eligible gifts dollar for dollar, starting at $25,000 and capped at $2.5 million per donor. The terms of the remaining $45 million are still to be determined, and Miami told the publication that later funding would largely depend on the school continuing to meet performance targets.
Dean Jenny Darroch wants every student to have a personalized career plan. The funding could help students earn industry certifications, learn through projects abroad and develop the data and technology skills employers expect. Darroch also wants students to learn how to judge when AI tools can be trusted and when their output deserves a closer look.
How the Farmer family built Cintas and three decades of charitable giving
Cintas traces its roots to 1929, when Doc and Amelia Farmer began laundering discarded factory rags and selling them back to businesses. Decades later, Richard T. “Dick” Farmer earned a business degree from Miami in 1956, served in the U.S. Marine Corps and joined the family company. In 1968 he started Satellite Corporation, which absorbed the family’s uniform business and became Cintas. He took the company public in 1983.
His son Scott Farmer, a 1981 Miami graduate, served as Cintas CEO from 2003 to 2021 and is now executive chairman. The uniform and facility services company reported $11.26 billion in revenue for fiscal 2026. Scott Farmer also chairs Summer Hill, Inc., the family’s Cincinnati-based family office. The Farmer Family Foundation is the charitable entity behind the Miami University gift.
Joyce Barnes Farmer graduated from Miami in 1957 with a degree in elementary education and later served on several university advisory bodies. She and Dick made their first cornerstone gift to the business school in 1992. A $30 million foundation gift in 2005 helped pay for the school’s building and supported faculty. In 2016, the Farmers and their foundation gave another $40 million, setting Miami’s previous fundraising record for a single gift.
The family has used matching gifts elsewhere in Greater Cincinnati. In 2025, Great Parks Forever raised $2 million from the community to unlock an equal match from the Farmer Family Foundation. Together with a prior $3 million foundation gift, the effort raised $7 million for projects including trails and access to conservation areas. The foundation reported $50.8 million in charitable disbursements for 2024 in its federal tax filing.
At Miami, the family’s earlier gifts helped build the school’s physical home and support its faculty. The new commitment turns to what students can do before graduation, from testing their skills on real projects to building a plan for their first job. The match gives other donors a way to help fund that work.
