$28M gift is Drake University’s largest single donation ever

Areas across Drake University in Des Moines, from its capital projects to scholarship funds, will feel the impact of a multimillion 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 private university’s history.

Drake President Marty Martin called the gift a “monumental moment for the institution.” Officials announced the gift at a news conference Tuesday with 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.

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, according to a news release.

Martin said the project, which is set to be completed in January, comes with a price tag of $16 million. According to the release, dollars from The Ones Campaign have gone to the renovations, and $11 million had been raised by 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 also will go to Drake Athletics, with an emphasis on women’s basketball; and to 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 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 pharmacy students.

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

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.

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

This article first appeared in the Iowa Capital Dispatch.