| 1954 |
The Bush Foundation makes its first contribution toward education when it creates a $25,000 pool for scholarships called the Fund for Scholars.
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| 1959 |
The A.G. Bush Library is established at the Industrial Relations Center at the University of Chicago, with a donation from the Foundation.
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| 1960s |
Archibald Bush makes grants to a wide range of educational institutions with most going to private colleges and universities. At Hamline University, where he was a trustee, Bush contributes to construction of the Student Center and Alumni Learning Center and helps start the Alumni Challenge Program. Other recipients are Rollins College in Florida; William Mitchell College of Law in Minnesota; George Williams College in Illinois; and the University of Chicago.
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| 1970 |
Former Governor Elmer L. Andersen helps establish an education policy that opens funding to publicly-funded educational institutions, providing support that legislative and tax monies do not cover.
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| 1972 |
The Foundation begins a program of alumni fund matching grants to 16 private colleges in Minnesota.
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| 1974 |
The Foundation provides funds to house the collections of the Hill monastic Manuscript Library at St. John’s University in Collegeville. In an unusual move, the Foundation decides to support the full cost of the new building. It is named the Bush Center.
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| 1974 |
The Foundation adds six colleges in North and South Dakota to the alumni fund matching grants program.
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| 1976 |
The Foundation begins a program of matching capital grants for four-year undergraduate private colleges. Authorized for limited periods, the program is renewed successive times until it ends in 2008.
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| 1976 |
The Board decides to open the alumni challenge grants to private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). As the program grows, the Foundation expands the universe of recipients to include all of the private United Negro College Fund colleges and universities.
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| 1977 |
The Board approves the Foundation’s first grant to a tribal college, providing funds to help build a library at Sinte Gleska College Center at Rosebud, South Dakota.
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| 1978 |
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation agrees to collaborate with the Bush Foundation in the alumni challenge grants program for HBCUs.
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| 1979 |
The Foundation authorizes faculty development programs for four-year private colleges and public universities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
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| 1980 |
The Foundation awards first faculty development planning and program grants to regional institutions.
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| 1982 |
Directors commission review of regional program to prepare for its future evolution.
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| 1983 |
The Foundation awards first faculty development planning grant to a tribal college, Sinte Gleska College. Later, grants were also awarded to Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota, and Turtle Mountain Community College and Standing Rock Community College (Sitting Bull) in North Dakota, among many others.
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| 1984 |
Directors expand faculty development program to include tribal educational institutions in the three-state region and award first program grants.
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| 1985 |
The Foundation expands regional program to include the 18 members of the Minnesota Community College System.
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| 1987 |
Bush/Hewlett award first faculty development program grants to HBCUs. The Foundation also expands the faculty development program to serve all tribally-controlled, accredited colleges in the United States, awarding grants to the Navajo Community College (Dine) in Arizona and the Salish Kootenai Community College in Montana.
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| 1989 |
The Board votes to selectively include two-year accredited private liberal arts colleges in the matching capital grants program.
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| 1999 |
The Foundation partners with the Mellon Foundation to support college and university access to an electronic journal storage project (JSTOR) of periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
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| 2000 |
The Foundation grants $3 million to the American Indian College Fund (AICF) toward a large capital campaign for building projects for the 30 colleges of the AICF consortium, a commitment that ends in late 2004.
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| 2005 |
The Foundation awards grants totaling $5 million to help meet emergency needs of private HBCUs affected by Hurricane Katrina.
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| 2006 |
The long Bush/Hewlett collaborative funding of Historical Black Colleges and Universities ends with $2 million grant to the United Negro College Fund to improvement enrollment and graduation rates. The total Bush/Hewlett contribution over 28 years was $39.7 million.
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| 2007 |
In addition to the $5 million granted to HBCUs in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina, the Foundation awards a grant to Dillard University to help replace faculty lost to other institutions as a result of the storm and its aftermath.
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