Trump gives over $100,000 to Penn Club

Although this marks Donald Trump's first gift to the University, administrators hope the 1968 graduate will donate more in the future.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump donated more than $100,000 to the Penn Club of New York recently. The gift marks the 1968 Wharton graduate's first major donation to the University.

Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Virginia Clark said the donation was part of a campaign to raise funds for the Club. Although Clark would not specify the exact amount of the donation, she said it was a "six-figure gift."

Clark added that Trump has also been asked by several University figures to donate additional funds for an on-campus project. Such a donation would likely be used towards the funding of a component of the University's "Agenda for Excellence," a plan which University President Judith Rodin has said will cost at least $1 billion.

Clark would not reveal the outcome of these requests but said she was optimistic.

(New to The Daily Pennsylvanian? Read our other coverage of Donald Trump, including Wharton's years-long effort to court his fortune, an investigation of whether he donated any money to Penn, and a report on whether he was actually a top-notch student, as some other outlets have claimed.)

Trump spokesperson Norma Foerderrer would not comment on the size of the donation or any future donations, adding that she believed Trump may want to keep the details of his donations private. Foerderrer also declined to name the exact date of the donation, although she said it was given within the last few months.

The Penn Club opened in June 1994, on 44th Street in Manhattan's West Side, down the block from clubs for Harvard, Yale and Cornell university alumni. Its 39 guest rooms are filled with Penn paraphernalia, and a former Penn Club official said its designers aimed for a "Ritz-Carlton feel." The club originally cost $25 million to build. But Penn Club General Manager Peter Humborg said he was unaware of any gift from Trump.

"This is news to me," said Humborg. "But I just started [the position of general manager] two-and-a-half weeks ago, so it might have happened before my time."

He added that because the donation took him by surprise, he could not speculate about the intended use of the funds.

As for the on-campus project that may be in the works, Wharton spokesperson Michael Baltes said he is "not aware of any gift to Wharton," although rumors of a Trump gift to the school have circulated for years.

After several years of limited involvement with the University, Trump's activity has increased this year following the matriculation of his son, Wharton freshman Donald Trump, Jr. In addition to his recent donation, Trump gave a lecture last fall to an overflow crowd in Dunlop Auditorium.

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