NYU Stern Receives Largest Gift In School History: $53.6 Million

It’s the season of giving — if you’re a grateful alum of an elite business school, that is.

For the second time this winter, New York University’s Stern School of Business has announced a major gift from a deep-pocketed alum. Anne E. Tasca, a real estate magnate who received an undergraduate degree from Stern in 1988, has bequested $53.6 million to Stern — the largest single gift in school history.

“There is only one word to describe Anne’s generosity and that is ‘breathtaking,’” Stern Dean Raghu Sundaram says.

Tasca’s testamentary donation, which goes to the school after her death, is not only the largest total giving amount from a woman donor, but the largest total testamentary commitment ever received from a single donor by the school.

“Education goes beyond just being an important goal for bright young students — it is the bedrock of our society and the foundation of our future,” Tasca says in a news release from the school. “I am thrilled to be providing talented students access to the extraordinary and life-changing opportunities that will come from an education at the Stern School, and that will enable them to become the shapers of tomorrow.”

GIFT WILL FUND MBA & UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS 

Tasca’s gift will go primarily toward funding student scholarships at the undergraduate and MBA levels, the Stern School announced, with a focus on global study and immersive travel to foster learning through an international lens. It will also endow a faculty chair in the name of her father, Henry J. Tasca.

The international focus is appropriate in honoring Anne Tasca, a dual American and Italian citizen, and her father, an economist and American diplomat.

Independently of the “many” scholarships that will eventually be funded by Tasca’s gift, NYU Stern will award four new scholarships in her name — two each in the undergraduate and MBA programs — in each year from the 2023-24 academic year.

“We are deeply honored that she has chosen to make this truly exceptional gift to the Stern School,” Sundaram says. “She is leaving a legacy that will provide generations of future Tasca Scholars access to the power of education and the ability to pursue it along with their dreams.”

Tasca’s gift follows on the testamentary gift of $25 million from Kenneth Langone to boost Stern’s part-time MBA program. It was announced in January.

A NON-TRADITIONAL PATH

Anne Tasca followed a non-traditional path, and it's easy to imagine future recipients of the Tasca scholarship doing the same. Born in France, she studied in Switzerland, attended high school in England, and lived in many parts of Europe before moving to the United States in the 1970s, where she worked for the U.S. Information Agency, contributing to the Voice of America. Tasca received a B.S. from Stern in her thirties while also working for Citibank. She then went on to pursue a master’s degree in international relations.

Today, Tasca leads the family’s real estate firm, Edilizia Rosazza SRL, in Rome, with her sister.

“Anne is a role model who has elevated the standards around educational access to phenomenal heights,” says Andre J.L. Koo (MBA ’94), Chair of the Stern Executive Board. “We are enormously grateful for her vision, for her commitment, and for modeling so superbly the impact of what can be achieved through legacy giving.”

“Anne Tasca’s generosity to her alma mater is simply extraordinary,” adds Alison Mass (B.S. ’80, MBA ’81), former Chair of the Stern Executive Board. “Her magnificent gift means that she will directly transform the lives of so many promising students with her legacy of education.”

DON'T MISS FIVE YEARS AND $150 MILLION LATER, WHAT A MEGA-BUSINESS SCHOOL GIFT CAN DO