Drake University announces $28 million gift from alum, board of trustees member

Drake University alum and businessman Greg Johansen received a baton from Drake University President Marty Martin to commemorate his $28 million gift to the university on May 14, 2024. (Photo by Brooklyn Draisey/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Areas across Drake University, from its capital projects to scholarship funds to colleges, will feel the impact of a multi-million dollar gift from a businessman and alum.

Greg Johansen and his wife, Cie Johansen, have committed $28 million to the Drake University Ones Campaign, to be invested in programs and projects spanning the campus. Once it has been gifted in full, the couple’s donation will be the largest single-donor gift in the university’s history.

Drake University President Marty Martin called the gift a “monumental moment for the institution,” one that will improve the Drake community experience for years to come. University officials announced the gift during a press conference Tuesday alongside Greg Johansen.

“It’s going to touch lives for generations in the form of a place to be, in the form of scholarships, in the form of support for student athletics, for them to be their best student athletes,” Martin said. “It’s exactly what we would hope our donors would focus on.”

Dollars from the gift have gone to the Drake Fund and sustainability efforts like putting solar panels on Meredith Hall, and will allow the Morehouse Hall revitalization project to be completed debt-free. Formerly a residence hall, Morehouse Hall will become the Johansen Student Center, housing the university’s first intercultural center, centers for student organizations, a plaza and other spaces for the community, according to a news release.

Martin said the project, which is set to be completed in January 2025, comes with a price tag of $16 million. According to the release, dollars from The Ones Campaign have already gone to the renovations, and $11 million had already been raised by the time of the groundbreaking in November.

Drake Student Body President Ashley Dyson said during the announcement that the new student center will give students a greater sense of community and opportunities to find and get involved in organizations they might miss otherwise.

“In my three years at Drake, I have been involved in numerous student organizations, clubs and activities,” Dyson said. “I can say from personal experience and from the honor that I have representing my fellow students how immensely excited I am for a centralized location to serve as the home for more than 150-plus student organizations, a space where all Drake students can come together and grow together.”

Portions of the gift will also go to Drake Athletics, with an emphasis on women’s basketball, the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and the John D. Bright College.

Johansen graduated from the Drake College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in 1976, after which he spent his career in pharmacy operations, co-founding GRX Corporation then GRX Holdings, LLC, which operated 22 Medicap pharmacies in the state. He held a position on the university’s Pharmacy National Advisory Council from 2011 to 2018 and has served on the board of trustees since 2015.

“I wanted to be a pharmacist (for) as long as I can remember, and Drake was the place I wanted that to happen,” Johansen said.

The couple has made various donations to the university over the years, according to a news release, establishing the Johansen Research Lab and Johansen Skills Assessment Laboratory and funding international study experiences for Drake pharmacy students.

The Ones Campaign will continue until October, Vice President of University Advancement John Smith said. The campaign has already surpassed its $225 million goal and, as of Tuesday, sits at $247 million.

Johansen said he hopes the announcement of his and his wife’s gift will prompt others to donate, furthering the university’s ability to offer opportunities and support to students and faculty.

“It’s a good feeling, it’s also awkward, but I think it’s important to help draw other donors in, to understand the importance of being philanthropic,” Johansen said. “And for people to see others being philanthropic … it helps encourage them to be philanthropic.”

Recently the university announced that three programs will be discontinued as part of efforts to balance its budget, only a fraction of the total number of programs recommended to be eliminated. Drake needs to cut its $132 million operating budget by $14.3 million with a deadline of June 2026, according to Drake Faculty Senate meeting minutes, and cost-saving measures have been undertaken in both the academic and nonacademic spheres of the university.

While the money contributed by the Johansens and others doesn’t go directly to budget lines that could aid in Drake making up deficits, Johansen said, Martin said donations can help indirectly by eliminating costs the university would have had to handle itself otherwise.

The revitalization of Morehouse Hall does away with costs to maintain the nearly 100-year-old building without the university having to take on debt, Martin said, and the more than $52 million in The Ones Campaign dollars going to scholarship funds are making the university more affordable, attracting students and providing the university with more revenue. Financial gifts from donors is a return on investment that can be put against the operating budget, he said, which helps overall.

“Many, many different ways does this give us relief against our operating budget challenges, but it’s not the only way,” Martin said.

All departments, both academic and non-academic, are placed to meet their budget targets for the next two years, Martin said.

As a member of the university’s board of trustees, Johansen said he is “confident” in the administration’s handling of university finances.

“Any organization has to live within its means,” Johansen said.

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