Temple University receives record $55 million gift from an alum who almost didn’t get accepted
Christopher Barnett made his money in real estate and healthcare and now heads ABA Centers of America, which provides services to children with autism.
With some community college credits from Florida, Christopher Barnett applied to Temple University nearly two decades ago, hoping to transfer in and attend school near his then-girlfriend.
He was rejected, but that didn’t stop him. Barnett bought a plane ticket, showed up unannounced at the office of the director of transfer admissions and waited hours until she finally agreed to see him. And that was after she had already told him on the phone all admissions decisions were final and she would not reconsider.
“I said I need you to take a chance on me, and if you do that, I promise you I will graduate with a 4.0 and I’ll be a prominent alum and I’ll give back to the university,“ Barnett recalled.
That admissions director, Carolyn Thorpe, admitted him on the spot — he got that 4.0 — and on Friday, Barnett, now 42, made good on his larger promise.
The behavioral healthcare business leader donated $55 million to Temple, its single largest gift, surpassing the $27.5 million given by philanthropists Sidney and Caroline Kimmel in April.
“I believe in Temple University,” said Barnett, who has homes in Fort Lauderdale and Philadelphia. “Temple took a chance on me when the odds were uncertain. And it helped shape who I am and what I’ve been able to do for my communities.”
Thorpe has since died, but Barnett on Thursday found and texted her daughter Ebonie Thorpe, a Philadelphia school teacher who lives two blocks from Temple.
“I was kind of in disbelief,” Thorpe said.
They got on a Zoom and he invited her to the Paley event, which she attended. He also offered to fund a $12,000 scholarship for her son, a freshman political science major at Temple, she said.
But what touched her most is how Barnett brought her mother’s spirit to life.
“Seeing Chris Barnett was like a microcosm of all the individuals who passed through her office and the lives she impacted,” Thorpe said. “It was magical to hear someone talk about the impact that my mother had on him.”
Barnett’s gift will go toward Temple’s College of Public Health, $20 million of it specifically for an autism center there. Scholarships, academic programs, and supports to foster student success also will get funding. And the public health college, which recently moved into the $160 million remodeled Paley Hall in the center of campus, will bear Barnett’s name.
Barnett’s gift was announced at the grand opening of Paley on Friday morning.
Barnett is founder and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale-based ABA Centers of America, which provides autism care and services for families in 60 markets across 12 states and Puerto Rico. Three of its centers are in Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Large donations under John Fry
Notably, Temple has now had two record-breaking gifts this year, during the fledgling tenure of President John Fry, who announced last November when he took the helm that increased philanthropy would be a major goal.
When the Kimmels made their gift for the new home of the College of Media and Communication and Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts, Fry was pleased and said Temple deserved to receive larger gifts than it had in the past and be in the same league as schools such as the University of Delaware, which recently got a gift in excess of $71 million. Barnett’s gift doubles the Kimmel contribution, and Fry hinted that more big gifts could be on the way.
» READ MORE: Temple president announces record $27.5 million gift from Sidney and Caroline Kimmel
“If everything breaks right, hopefully yes,” Fry said, noting that ambulatory care and STEM fields are two other critical areas that need financial support.
Fry said he told Barnett that his gift would elevate the entire university and that he would serve as a role model for giving back to Temple.
“It’s just going to make everyone turn around and say ‘Wow, what’s happening over at Temple,” Fry said. “And the answer is there is a ton happening and we have a ton of need.”
Fry said he met Barnett the summer before he became Temple’s president and found he had “sky-high” aspirations for Temple and the public health college. Barnett had been involved in the health college for years and sat on its board of visitors.
In 2022, Barnett gave Temple $1 million to create ABA Centers Autism Lab, which conducts research, trains students, and offers diagnostic services to patients even if they can’t pay. He also gave funding for Temple’s on-campus food pantry, which now bears his name, and in 2024, helped launch “Maddy’s Room, a sensory friendly space for students and faculty,” according to Temple. (Barnett’s daughter Madison has autism.)
His company also pays for 40 to 90 of its employees to get master’s degrees at Temple every year, he said. And he and his wife set up a fund to pay for Temple students to study abroad in Europe, he said.
As of May, he also became a member of Temple’s board of trustees.
From high school dropout to high-profile Temple alumnus
Barnett’s path was non-traditional. He dropped out of high school at 16 so he could start working — he opened his first business at 18 — though he later got his GED.
At Temple, he quickly was admitted into the honors program and became a top student. But he recalled classmates early on talking about reading classic books like The Catcher in the Rye, something he had never done. So he went to the library, checked out as many as he could and read them over the next several months.
“I was never going to feel embarrassed like that again,” he said.
In 2010, he got his bachelor’s in political science with minors in economics and general business studies. He later got a doctor of law degree from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law.
Over his career, he’s held various positions in real estate and healthcare businesses before founding ICBD Holdings in 2019. That company, according to Barnett’s LinkedIn, “invests in companies and initiatives that disrupt industries, enhance communities, and sustain profitability.”
He launched the ABA centers in 2020 after his own frustrations with trying to find quality care for his daughter with autism.
“I couldn’t even get access to a diagnosis,” he said.
It started with one employee in one clinic and has grown to more than 2,500 employees, he said.
Thorpe said that during her Zoom call with Barnett, he also offered support to her niece, who has autism.
Jennifer Ibrahim, dean of the public health college, has had a relationship with Barnett since 2018 when she was the college’s associate dean for academic affairs.
“Any time students were in need, Chris would say, ‘How much?’” she said. “‘What do you need?’”
Early on, Fry said Ibrahim told him he needed to meet Barnett, noting all the positive conversations she was having with him.
Barnett, who won the 2024 Ernst & Young national entrepreneur of the year award, has five daughters, two of whom are currently enrolled at Temple, one in the public health college and the other in the business school.
He said it was important to make the gift at a time when higher education is under attack and federal funding is in jeopardy.
“There are Temple students just like me that are showing up on these campuses, whose odds are uncertain, who need just a little help,” he said. “My goal and my family’s goal is to ... use our resources to create positive impact in the world.”