$500 million mark in cumulative giving to date passed by philanthropists Harry and Linda Fath with their latest gift to school in honor of daughter

A Hyde Park school in Cincinnati has received an $11 million windfall from local philanthropists Harry and Linda Fath – the latest in a half-a-billion-dollar string of donations from the couple.

The allocation, made in honor of their daughter who passed away earlier this year, stands as the largest in the organization’s history.

Springer School this week announced the $11 million endowed gift from the Faths, saying the funds will be used exclusively to student scholarships, offering aid to those who might not otherwise be able to attend due to financial barriers.

The couple made the pledge in honor of their late daughter, Lisa Fath Ray, who died at age 41 in March 2024.

Springer specializes in teaching children with learning disabilities; its full tuition tops $31,000 but a majority of its students receive scholarship funds and financial aid to cover a bulk of the cost.

“This gift creates a foundation we’ll be able to draw from annually in perpetuity,” Springer President Brett Marcoux told the Courier. “We will be able to reach thousands of families.”

The gift will create the Lisa Fath Ray Scholarship Fund, which will award 5% of the donation each year.

The Faths have three grandchildren who currently attend the school. Their daughter “believed deeply in the impact of Springer’s learning environment,”.

“Lisa’s warmth and joy could truly light up a room,” Marcoux said in the release. Kirstin Eismin, vice president of institutional advancement at the Springer School, said she was an important part of the Springer parent community.

“She knew how important Springer would be and really advocated for her child to come to Springer,” Eismin said. “She participated in lots of wonderful things including supporting Springer through fundraising opportunities as well as day-to-day things. She had multiple layers to her support of Springer.”

Springer said the gift will allow it to extend scholarship funds to students specifically at the high school level, where its enrollment is growing.

Springer enrolled in its first 9th-grade class in August 2023 and currently serves grades 1-10. Additional grades will be added each year until 2027.

Currently, the school’s enrollment sits at 225. Marcoux said Springer expects to see that continue to rise over the academic year.

Springer is currently in the process of identifying a location for the high school. Marcoux said last year they’d looked at more than 20 properties, including former office buildings, and were open to both a short-term rental or a long-term purchase.

The new campus will be the first in the Tri-State exclusively dedicated to serving young people with ADHD, dyslexia and executive function challenges.

The Faths said they hope their gift will “inspire further contributions” toward the development of the high school campus.

“There are so many more children out there we could serve if we could award more financial aid,” Eismin said. “The Faths understood that and knew that, not only are we growing a high school and will have more students and more need, but there are children that could access Springer if only they had the support of financial aid. By them giving this gift, we’re going to go out and tell others about that and tell that message so we can inspire more support.”

While the number is a moving target, Harry and Linda Fath have publicly gifted at least $500 million over the last seven years. Many of those donations stand as record pledges for the respective organizations.

In 2022, the couple gave $3 million to Springer as part of the school’s $19 million capital campaign, “Advancing Success.”

Also in 2022, the Faths gifted $50 million, respectively, to CISE, or Catholic Inner-city Schools Education; $50 million to Xavier University; and $50 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Cincinnati.

In February and November 2021, they donated $50 million each to Harry Fath’s alma maters, St. Xavier High School, and University of Notre Dame.

At the end of 2021, the Faths also announced their second $50 million gift to help Mercy Ships build floating hospitals, which provides free surgical care to impoverished residents of Africa. The Faths first donation to that organization came in 2018.

Also in 2018, the Faths pledged a lead gift of $50 million to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s $150 million renovation, known as More Home to Roam. And Harry Fath pledged $50 million to the Lindner Center of Hope in 2017.

There have also been smaller $1 million gifts to Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Purcell Marian High School and others.

Raised in Cincinnati, Harry Fath founded Fath Properties, a real estate firm that owns, rehabs and manages apartment communities, in 1970. Its current portfolio consists of more than 8,300 apartment homes throughout Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Indiana and Dallas.

Linda Fath has been a supporter of local Cincinnati organizations including Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Greater Cincinnati Foundation and several other civic and social activities.