DePaul University in Chicago has announced a gift of cash and real estate totaling $21 million from alumnus George L. Ruff and his wife, Tanya, in support of scholarships and the university's Institute of Global Homelessness.

A portion of the funds will establish the George L. and Tanya S. Ruff Endowed Scholarship for low-income students, students of color, first-generation college students, and current members or veterans of the U.S. armed services, with a protion of the funds tol be made available immediately to support a campaign aimed at assisting students facing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; Ruff serves on the campaign committee. In addition, the couple has pledged up to $750,000 to match gifts of at least $50,000 through year-end for the creation of new endowed scholarships.

The remaining funds will support the work of the university's Institute of Global Homelessness to address housing insecurity, with the goal of ending street homelessness through research, global cooperation, and direct action. In recognition of the gift, the institute will be renamed after the Ruffs.

A 1974 graduate of DePaul's Driehaus College of Business, Ruff is senior principal of Trinity Hotel Investors and serves on the university's School of Hospitality Leadership Advisory Board and Philanthropy Committee. The couple's previous gifts have supported the Real Estate Center, the George L. Ruff Endowed Scholarship in Hospitality Leadership, the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center Endowment, and the George L. Ruff Endowed Chair in Real Estate.

"The Ruffs' most recent commitment to the cause of ending global homelessness is characteristic of their extraordinary generosity and devotion to the Vincentian mission of DePaul University," said Mark McGreevy, one of the founders of the Institute of Global Homelessness and group CEO of Depaul International, the London-based nonprofit that coordinates with the institute and other affiliates in several countries. "They were there in the early days of the institute, and their involvement will continue to inspire our movement going forward."