Harvard Law School Raises a Record $135 Million, Led by a $31.4 Million Gift From Morgan Chu

Harvard Law School raised a record $135 million in fiscal year 2026, surpassing its two most recent fundraising years by more than $50 million, The Harvard Crimson reported Monday, citing a person briefed on the giving who was granted anonymity to discuss a private meeting. A Law School spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

The record was built on a $31.4 million gift from Morgan Chu, a former president of the Board of Overseers and an intellectual property attorney who graduated from the school in 1976. The gift, the largest in the Law School's history, endows six new professorships. University Professor Noah R. Feldman called Chu an "incredibly loyal and very impressive" alumnus and said the donation was a "very fitting marker of his deep commitment over the years to the law school."

The Crimson's source said the fundraising figures and the gift were presented last Friday at a combined meeting of the Law School's Dean's Advisory Council and Leadership Council. The school's own news site has also announced the gift, under the headline "Morgan '76 and Helen Chu make record $31.4M gift to Harvard Law School." The $135 million total comes from the Crimson's source, and the school did not comment on it.

By comparison, the Law School brought in roughly $73 million in 2025 and roughly $84 million in 2024, according to the Crimson's source. The turnaround showed early: the school got off to its fastest-ever start, with at least $61 million in the first six months of the fiscal year, and in January fundraising officials projected it could raise $100 million by June 30, the Crimson previously reported.

The numbers also appear to ease an internal worry. In January, according to the Crimson, a gifts officer flagged internally that a settlement with the Trump administration could shift donor sentiment. But "nearly 10 months later," the paper wrote, the university is still in a costly legal standoff with the White House and the fundraising numbers are stronger than ever.

University-wide, Harvard flipped a $113 million operating deficit in fiscal 2025 to a $100 million surplus in its 2026 financial report, helped largely by increased giving, the Crimson reported. It cited a record $684 million in current-use gifts, up nine percent from the prior year, and total reported fundraising of more than $1.5 billion, or 48 percent of operating revenue.

Other schools did even better. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences drew roughly $800 million in fiscal 2026, past a $500 million target, and raised $100 million for Ph.D. fellowships, with a campaign for a second $100 million announced last month, the paper reported. The university is also quietly weighing a $500 million push to bolster scientific research funding as the availability of federal grants remains uncertain, and President Alan M. Garber convened a committee this summer to plan a research vision for the next decade that is explicitly linked to fundraising.

Some schools have discussed other sources of money. According to the Crimson, the Harvard School of Public Health's Health Policy and Management Executive Council privately weighed partnerships last year with healthcare companies including CVS Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Tenet to shore up research support.

The Law School made other news this month. In an Oct. 5 report, the Crimson said it ended work authorization for international students' externships after new federal guidance, and a Law School graduate, Navi Pillay, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, according to an Oct. 13 article. Neither is connected to the fundraising report.