Butler grad donating $12M for women’s sports, leadership funds

A Butler University graduate and trustee plans to give $12 million to the university’s women’s athletic programs through a future estate gift, the school announced Wednesday.

The donation by Rebecca Graham Paul is the largest gift to the athletic department and the largest known estate commitment in Butler University’s history. The majority of the gift will be used for an Endowed Fund for Women’s Athletics Excellence in Paul’s name, while a smaller portion will go to a new fund focused on providing leadership training for all of the school’s athletes.

While most of the donation will be funded through her estate, Butler University officials said an undisclosed portion of Paul’s donation will be given as a gift immediately to allow current student athletes to benefit from the women’s athletics fund and leadership academy.

Butler’s announcement of the gift coincides with National Girl and Women in Sports Day, as the larger of the endowed funds is intended to support key efforts within the school’s 12 women’s athletic programs.

Paul, 75, an Indianapolis native who graduated from Butler in 1970 with an undergraduate degree in physical education and a master’s degree in 1975, told IBJ she believes there’s extensive value in supporting women’s sports. Paul was a gymnast at Butler before the implementation of Title IX, a federal law established in 1972 that bolstered funding and parity for women’s sports at educational institutions.

“Any time is a good time to make an investment in women,” said Paul, who performed with Starlight Musicals at the since-demolished Hilton U. Brown Theatre on campus. Her mother was employed by the university and her sister attended the school, as well. She has been donating to Butler since she was a new graduate at 21.

“I was very invested in Butler. … I got my bachelor’s and master’s at Butler. I got married at Butler,” she said. “So, putting together my will … [and] looking at where I wanted it to go, athletics made a difference in my life, and I hope that this will make a difference in other girls’ lives.”

Paul is president and CEO of the Tennessee Education Lottery Corp. and was previously involved in launching the lotteries in Florida, Georgia and Illinois. She was  president of the World Lottery Association from 2022 to 2024.

A native of Indianapolis, Paul was Miss Indiana in 1972 and fourth runner-up in the 1973 Miss America Pageant.

Paul has been a Butler University trustee since 2019. She has been involved with numerous Butler initiatives, having served on the university’s alumni board and an advisory council for the dean of the Jordan College of the Arts.

Grant Leiendecker, vice president and director of athletics for Butler, said Paul’s gift will elevate opportunities for the university’s student athletes at a time when name, image and likeness is shifting the recruiting landscape and questions continue arising about the future model of intercollegiate sports.

“It’s coming at a critical time,” he said. “I think the funding model of college athletics is under intense pressure, moving toward revenue sharing—having to share revenue directly with the sports [and athletes] that are helping to produce it,” he said. “So this commitment is just going to be critically important to our ability to not only maintain but advance our women’s athletics programs in the future.”

Leinendecker, a 2011 Butler graduate who played basketball, said one of his main priorities since taking his position last year has been growing philanthropy for the athletics program. He said it is “absolutely my hope” that the gift spurs additional donations.

“This gift certainly sets a tone there, so that’s my hope, that this inspires other people to look at Butler athletics as as a philanthropic outlet and an opportunity to do good and benefit young men and women that are striving for for excellence every day,” he said. “I do believe this will inspire more leadership-level commitments to secure the future of Butler athletics.”

Paul will be recognized for her gift during the Butler’s men’s basketball game on Feb. 8 against Providence College and the women’s basketball game on Feb. 9 against Marquette University.

“We are deeply grateful to Rebecca Graham Paul for her extraordinary generosity and steadfast commitment to Butler University,” Butler President James Danko said in written remarks. “Her transformational gift will not only elevate our women’s athletics programs but also inspire future generations of female student-athletes to excel both on and off the field of play.”