John Schreiber, founder of the Blackstone Group’s real estate investment management business, and Kathy Schreiber, co-founder of the John & Kathleen Schreiber Foundation, gave DePaul a $1.97 million donation that will be used for “transformative” programs, according to Newsline.

The donation will be split in two portions. The first, consisting of over $1.2 million, is designated to the Schreiber Catholic Future Teacher Leader Program, according to Newsline. The second portion, consisting of nearly $600,000, will be awarded to the DePaul Migration Collaborative, the Egan Hope Scholars and the Egan Family Engagement and Coalition Initiative.

Kathy Schreiber is the niece of Monsignor John Egan, the public figure honored by the statue in front of the Lincoln Park Student Center. She told Newsline she is inspired by Egan’s “strong legacy of social service” so the couple’s donation aims to honor his legacy.

The Egan Hope Scholars is a program the Schreibers have supported for a long time, according to Newsline. The program was created to honor Egan’s, “lifetime work of social activism and community service.” 

But DePaul is not the only school the Schreibers donation will go toward. 

On June 2, 2022, Loyola University Chicago announced that the Schreibers donated the school’s largest ever gift, amounting to $100 million. John Schreiber attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette for high school then attended Loyola’s School of Business Administration for his undergraduate. 

The couple’s gift to Loyola completely funds “full scholarships, room and board and an array of comprehensive support services for aspiring Black, Latino, first generation and other ethnically and racially diverse students who are historically underrepresented in higher education,” according to Loyola’s University Newsroom.

According to the John & Kathleen Schreiber Foundation, the foundation supports only Chicagoland “welcoming communities where underserved and vulnerable populations have access to high-quality education and supportive services that help people reach their full potential.”

Because of this value, the couple chose the DePaul Migrant Collaborative as one of the programs to support because it is a collaboration between the university’s College of Law, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and Division of Mission and Ministry that works on migration issues through community-engaged projects, advocacy and research, according to Newsline.

“The Migration Collaborative will use this generous gift to pursue innovative scholarly and community-engaged projects to advance better public policy, stronger communities and a more just society,” Sioban Albiol and Shailja Sharma, the program’s codirectors, told Newsline.

Donna Kiel, the director of DePaul’s Office of Innovative Professional Learning, told Newsline the Schreiber Catholic Future Teacher Program will continue to “grow” because of the couple’s donation. The program is aimed to develop a diverse pipeline of future Catholic school teachers and leaders who will serve in underrepresented communities, according to Newsline.

John and Kathy Schreiber’s gift supports programs the donors think are exemplifying DePaul’s Catholic Vincentian values well.

“John and I believe deeply in the importance of investing in the next generation of socially minded leaders and doing so with a focus on equitable access to educational attainment,” Kathy Schreiber told Newsline. “DePaul’s dynamic programs are working to address social needs and changing lives in the process.”