The Wharton School’s donor base has rebounded this year after a marked decline in 2024, according to The Wharton Fund’s recently released Donor Honor Roll — but several high-profile donors have not reinstated their contributions to the school after halting them over Penn’s response to campus antisemitism allegations.
Each year, The Wharton Fund releases its Donor Honor Roll, which is primarily composed of a list of donor names and their affiliation to Penn. The 2025 document recognized all individuals who have made gifts, pledges, or specific payments to Wharton’s unrestricted giving fund during the University’s previous fiscal year.
At 177 pages, this year’s report marked an increase in alumni contributions compared to honor rolls in recent years. In 2023 and 2024, gifts had declined as a result of donor backlash against the University over its response to antisemitism allegations on campus.
In the document’s opening message, Wharton’s Chief Advancement Officer Bill Bole wrote that donors strengthen the school’s “ability to meet change head-on and deliver the insights and talent the world needs most.”
“I’m proud to share the meaningful difference your gift has made,” Bole wrote to the donors. “Thanks to your support, Wharton’s top students gained access to world-class business education, faculty pursued bold research, and innovative programming and global learning opportunities came to life.”
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Bole emphasized the “generosity” of Wharton’s donor base.
“Beyond just a listing of names, we hope that when alumni look through the Honor Roll, they are reminded that they are a part of an extraordinary, vibrant community whose generosity lights the way for Wharton’s future,” Bole wrote. “Each gift to The Wharton Fund — no matter the size — creates a ripple of impact, directly uplifting students and empowering the School to adapt, to grow, and to lead with vision.”
Bole also noted the difficulty to identify the “real impact” of financial support while organizing “annual funds.”
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“The Wharton Fund is put to work in tangible ways that directly support the mission and work of the School,” he added. “We are grateful to donors who give with such devotion, and are proud to be able to remind them, both through the Honor Roll and over the course of the year, of the possibilities that their collective support creates.”
Despite the broader uptick in donations, several of Wharton’s most high-profile donors have not reinstated their contributions to the school. Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan, for instance, publicly cut financial ties with the University in 2023 and was not listed in the 2025 donor roll.
At the time, Rowan described his decision as a response to the 2023 Palestine Writes Literature Festival, writing in an open letter that Penn was “a bastion of preferred speech.”
Rowan also called for donors to reduce their donations to a single dollar, and to forgo future donations until then-Penn President Liz Magill and then-University Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok resigned from their positions. Some donors have followed through with this suggestion, such as Jonathan Jacobson, who in a letter to Magill stated that his $1 check “represents the first installment of a multi-year pledge.”
Prominent members of the Huntsman family similarly ended their donations to Wharton amid backlash over Penn’s handling of on-campus antisemitism allegations and the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Neither Jon Huntsman Jr. nor Peter Huntsman appeared on the 2025 list.
The changes on this year’s report also echoed trends from 2024. Both the 2024 and 2025 honor rolls omitted statistics summarizing total donors and donation figures, a departure from the 2023 edition, which included the total number of donors to The Wharton Fund and its loyalty societies, as well as year-over-year percentage changes.
The reports are now primarily composed of donor names organized by affiliation and class year, without any broader metrics.
The 2025 list also included information on first-year donors and membership in the Benjamin Franklin Society, Wharton Fund Loyalty Society, and Hattersley Society — all of which organized donations to the school.
