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

Netflix has been championing Black stories, creators, and experiences through a more in-depth lens since 2019 with “Strong Black Lead,” which recently celebrated its three-year anniversary.

Now, the streaming giant’s co-CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, are dedicated to continuing their mission of advancing the Black and LatinX communities, specifically with educational opportunities for disadvantaged students.

Variety reports that the wedded couple donated $10 million to Tougaloo College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Mississippi. The new funding will be split between scholarships for the HBCU and will establish the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership Scholarship Fund at Brown University — founded by the two universities in 1964 “to prosper and thrive so that future generations of Tougaloo and Brown students can keep sharing new perspectives and generating new ideas.” Hastings and Quillin’s donation marks the largest that the school partnership has been awarded.

“HBCUs have been vastly undervalued for a long time,” Hastings and Quillin said in a statement, according to Variety. “They have an incredible track record of graduating so many Black leaders across the U.S. — doctors, lawyers, engineers and more. By investing in the extraordinary students who attend Tougaloo and Brown, we’re investing in America’s future.”

The donation will have an estimated initial annual payout of between $200,000 and $250,000 to help Tougaloo students with need-based scholarships, along with tuition costs for graduate or medical studies at Brown and for undergraduate semester exchange programs, according to the outlet.

“The remarkable personal gift to the historic Brown-Tougaloo Partnership from philanthropists Reed Hastings and Patricia Quillin will transform the lives of Tougaloo College students,” Tougaloo president Carmen J. Walters shared in her statement.