Mississippi HBCU Receives $10M Donation From Netflix’s Co-CEO Reed Hastings And Wife Patty Quillin

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, an independent film producer, are personally donating $10 million to Tougaloo College, a historically Black college and university in Mississippi, and the school’s partnership with Brown University.

The gift will fund much-needed financial aid for Tougaloo students working toward careers in medicine, public health, the sciences, education, business, and other fields and aspiring to make a positive impact on their communities after graduation.

Of the total, $5 million will fund scholarships at Tougaloo, in Jackson, Miss., and $5 million will establish the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Scholarship Fund at Brown, which is located in Providence, R.I.

The gift is the largest ever to the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership, which began in 1964 during the civil rights movement, and has connected more than 760 students, faculty and staff from both institutions through academic exchanges, fellowships, research projects, and other initiatives.

Hastings and Quillin, a California-based couple who said to be longtime champions of equity in education, have supported Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with multiple gifts over time, driven by the outsize role that HBCUs play in educating Black leaders who make a positive impact in a wide range of professions.

In 2020, the couple donated $120 million to two HBCUs — Spelman College and Morehouse College –and the United Negro College Fund for scholarship programs.