Philanthropists Joanne and Bill Conway have given The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing its largest ever gift —$13 million—through its Bedford Falls Foundation-DAF.

The donation will enable the school to provide need-based scholarships for more than 1,000 undergraduate and doctoral students and help support diversity in health care over the next five years, according to VCU.

In 1987, Mr. Conway co-founded the Carlyle Group, now a multinational private equity, alternative asset management, and financial services corporation that manages $246 billion in assets. According to Carlyle’s website, Mr. Conway is interim CEO and non-executive co-chairman of Carlyle. (Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group.)

In 1997, the Conways established their charitable trust, the Bedford Falls Foundation, which provides funding primarily for social services, Catholic agencies and churches, health organizations, hospitals, and human services, according to various online websites.

“This gift will fundamentally transform the VCU School of Nursing program, allowing us to offer much-needed financial support to our students,” said Jean Giddens, Ph.D., professor and dean of the VCU School of Nursing and Doris B. Yingling Endowed Chair. “At a time when the nation is facing persistent nursing shortages, funds like these are particularly critical to ensure a strong and diverse future nursing workforce.”

Currently, more than 70 percent of undergraduate nursing students at VCU qualify for a need-based scholarship. The latest gift will allow for doubling the total amount of scholarship support for students and increase the number of scholarships awarded by 37 percent over the next five years.

It also will amplify the impact VCU’s School of Nursing has on health care in Virginia and beyond as half of currently enrolled students are nonwhite and more than 90 percent of graduates work in Virginia, according to VCU.

Since 2019, the Conways have provided more than $18.5 million to support the VCU School of Nursing through their philanthropic vehicles.

“Nurses are essential,” Bill Conway said. “Joanne and I believe that, by reducing the financial burden for nursing students at VCU School of Nursing, the school will be better equipped to expand its programs to address the critical nursing shortage. When nurses face a lower debt burden, they can more easily achieve their personal and professional goals.”

VCU School of Nursing enrolls 930 students in academic programs, from entry-level practice through to doctorate, with a mission to shape the future of nursing. The school’s undergraduate program is ranked No. 22 in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released earlier this month, placing it in the top 4 percent of all undergraduate nursing programs nationwide.