Bucknell gets $25 million gift for Home Depot scholarship program

Bucknell University has landed a $25 million endowment that will pay the full cost of attendance for as many as four students each year from Home Depot families, a move that could put the Lewisburg campus within reach for students whose parents or grandparents work in the retail chain.

The Tools for Tomorrow Scholarship will cover tuition, fees, room and board. Bucknell says the award is open to Home Depot associates and their dependents, and that financial need is not required. The Home Depot says the scholarship also extends to associates’ children and grandchildren.

For a private university in Union County, the announcement lands with unusual force because the sticker price of college is often the first barrier that knocks out working- and middle-class applicants. Bucknell says more than half of its students receive financial aid, and the new endowment adds a full-ride option tied to a specific employer network, not just to traditional need-based aid. That makes the program both a scholarship and a recruiting tool for students who might otherwise rule out a place like Bucknell before they apply.

There is, however, one detail to watch. Bucknell’s scholarship page says the program will support up to five incoming students, while the university’s news release and Home Depot’s announcement describe up to four students a year. The difference suggests the program details are still being finalized or interpreted differently across the two institutions, but either version still represents a high-value award that wipes out the core cost of a Bucknell education.

The gift also fits neatly into Ken Langone’s own Bucknell story. In a Philanthropy Roundtable interview, Langone said a $300 loan from the university helped him finish his final semester and stayed with him for decades. He said that by the time of that interview, he and Elaine had 38 Bucknell students on scholarship, showing that this latest endowment extends a long pattern of support rather than starting a new one.

Bucknell has also pointed to the Langones’ earlier philanthropy. In 2016, the university said Ken and Elaine Langone had pledged a future $30 million gift for financial aid, then described it as the largest single commitment in Bucknell’s history. The new $25 million endowment now adds another major layer to that record, reinforcing Bucknell’s role as one of Lewisburg’s defining institutions while broadening who can realistically afford to study there.