$43.2 Million: Klekamp Family Gift to Law School Honors Donald Klekamp
The University of Cincinnati and UC Health just closed out the most generous fiscal year in their history, bringing in $311.9 million in donor support between July 2025 and June 2026 — a nearly 36 percent increase over the previous record of $228.5 million and the first time the two organizations have surpassed $300 million in a single year. It comes two years after UC wrapped its $2.19 billion “Next, Now” campaign, and officials say the momentum from that decade-long push has continued to build.
“This new record reflects the remarkable generosity of our donors,” said UC Foundation President Rich Bundy.
“Their commitment empowers UC and UC Health to transform lives through student success, faculty excellence, and groundbreaking advances in healthcare.”
Nothing defined the year quite like the $43.2 million gift from the Klekamp family in honor of their father, Donald P. Klekamp, a 1957 UC law graduate and retired founding partner of Cincinnati firm Keating Muething & Klekamp.
It is the largest single gift in the College of Law’s nearly 200-year history, and the school has been rededicated in his honor as the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law.
“The remarkable generosity of the Klekamp family pays tribute to Donald Klekamp’s legacy while enhancing our capacity to train the future generation of skilled legal professionals,” UC President Neville G. Pinto said.
Klekamp, a retired founding partner of KMK Law, graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1957. He went on to become an original shareholder and director of Cintas Corporation, serving on its board until he turned 70.
His giving to UC goes back decades. In 1995, he established the Donald P. Klekamp Professorship of Law, which continues to support research and teaching. His family also supported the relocation of the Legal Aid Society into the Donald P. Klekamp Community Law Center.
The new $43.2 million family gift is structured to support four priorities over time: expanded scholarships, experiential learning — including an expanded Summer Public Interest Fellowship Program — student-success initiatives such as bar-exam advising, and growth of the Corporate Law Center, anchored by a new endowed chair.
The impact came almost immediately. In the gift’s first year, every student who applied for a fully funded Summer Public Interest Fellowship received one, representing a 30 percent increase in funded participants.
Klekamp has credited much of his success to his late wife, Marianne, a fellow UC alumna who died in 2022. The two were married for 65 years and raised five children — Peter Klekamp, Jody Klekamp, Amy Geers, Molly Tassone and Rebecca Keating.
“They taught us many values that have contributed to our success — integrity, diligence, and the importance of giving back,” Peter Klekamp said at the announcement.
The $43.2 million commitment is not the family’s largest recent philanthropic pledge.
In September 2024, Peter Klekamp and his family committed a planned $60 million to Xavier University — the largest gift in that school’s history.
Together, the family’s major commitments to Cincinnati-area universities underscore its longstanding philanthropic involvement in higher education.
The Klekamp family gift was the largest individual commitment behind UC’s record fundraising year.
The rest of the year’s giving was led by a $20 million Gardner Family Foundation gift to the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, along with other significant commitments from alumni, foundations and physician donors. The Gardner gift supports the institute’s work in personalized neurological care and its learning health system.
Beyond the marquee names, the breadth of giving was significant as well: 32,800 donors made more than 45,000 gifts during the 2025–26 fiscal year. The university also reported record-breaking fundraising years for four colleges, including the College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, and the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law.
The record reflects the continued strength of both major and broad-based philanthropy at UC and UC Health, with donors supporting scholarships, experiential learning, faculty excellence, research and advances in healthcare.