Several major universities had a record-breaking donor year in 2025, including the University of Oklahoma, Florida State University, and the University of Tennessee.
But the University of South Carolina had a banner year, shattering its fundraising record by nearly $100 million. The USC system raised a record $357.6 million in private donations during fiscal year 2026, up from its previous record of $259.7 million just one year before.
Several large investments led the record-breaking year, including one from the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation, established by the late billionaire Houston Texans founder, who died in November 2018. Janice McNair recently died on July 14, 2026.
Robert, a 1958 USC graduate, and his wife, Janice, established the McNair Scholars program at USC in 1998. The merit-based scholarship is offered to the top 20 out-of-state students each year entering the South Carolina Honors College.
“Those who demonstrate outstanding academic achievements with a commitment to service and leadership represent our future,” Robert and Janice McNair said in a joint statement published on their foundation’s website. “We are delighted to provide scholarships to these deserving students.”
In 2026, the Robert and Janice McNair Foundation donated $25 million to USC, part of the couple’s longstanding philanthropic partnership with the university. All in, the foundation has given at least $81 million to USC since 1998, starting with a $20 million gift to launch the McNair Scholars program. Other major gifts included $10 million to sustain the scholars program, $8 million to found the McNair Institute for Entrepreneurism and Free Enterprise, $18 million for more scholar awards, and the $25 million gift this year.
It’s unclear whether the $25 million gift is going toward just the scholars program. The foundation didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
How Robert McNair made his fortune and gave it away
McNair’s path to billionaire status wasn’t linear. He spent most of his 20s and 30s as a struggling salesman and unsuccessful entrepreneur before breaking through with cogeneration company Cogen Technologies, which grew into the world’s largest privately owned cogeneration company.
“Many people say I was an overnight success, and I was, after 20 years of struggling,” McNair told Houston Lifestyles & Homes.
The payoff came in 1999, when McNair sold Cogen to Enron for $1.5 billion. He used the windfall to win the NFL’s 32nd franchise, the Houston Texans, for $700 million that same year, and the team began play in 2002.
But the McNairs channeled their fortune into far more than football. Making education and medical research the cornerstones of their giving, the couple contributed more than half a billion dollars to charity over the decades.
Robert also served on Baylor College of Medicine’s board of trustees in Waco, Texas, from 1994 until his death, and in 2007, the McNairs gave $100 million to Baylor—tying the largest donation in the school’s history—to fund research into breast and pancreatic cancer, juvenile diabetes, and the neurosciences. The gift helped establish the McNair Medical Institute, and the campus was later named in their honor.
Their reach extended well beyond Texas. The couple seeded programs at USC, Rice University, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Closer to Robert’s roots, the Robert and Janice McNair Educational Foundation, launched three decades ago for students at his old North Carolina high school, has awarded nearly $9 million in scholarships and transformed college readiness across his hometown of Rutherford County, N.C.
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