From Politics to Philanthropy: How One Couple Supports Arts and Travel at their Alma Maters

For many college students, the generosity of those who give can transform their college experience. The cost of college goes beyond tuition. Between high rent, rising inflation and transformative opportunities like study abroad, not every student has the funds to attend college, let alone take advantage of all it has to offer.

Jim St. George, a Minnesota native and University of Minnesota Twin Cities alumnus, and his husband Mark Sullivan began their philanthropic journey after retiring from political careers. They met in 1987 at the Harvard Kennedy School, where they studied public policy and were among the few openly gay students in their class. St. George worked in economic policy and politics, while Sullivan focused on campaign policy, ultimately building the Voter Activation Network, part of the largest Democratic campaign software, NGP VAN.

When VAN grew large enough that Sullivan needed to start a company, St. George left his job and helped Sullivan manage it, where it eventually became the largest Democratic campaign technology company. They merged with another political company and eventually handed it off to them. They sold everything and travelled the world non-stop for half a decade before selling the company for more than they ever thought they could and moving to New York.

St. George says that after putting some money aside for their families, they thought, “Well, what else do you do with the money?” They wanted to give back to the places that impacted them the most and help fund opportunities and experiences such as performances by world-renowned musicians and making study abroad more affordable.

“If I think of an institution that really put me on the path, it was the University of Minnesota,” he says. “I used to do state finance work and am painfully aware of the way state governments have continuously, year after year after year, under-financed public higher education. That very quickly became an almost no-brainer to say, ‘That’s where I would like our resources to go when we die.’”

St. George grew up in Superior, Wisc., but moved to the Iron Range in high school. He says his dad, who is Native American, worked in a mine taconite plant in the Iron Range as an electrician, his parents married young and had no opportunities. UMN helped take him out of a cycle and gave him opportunities his parents never had.

He worked as an activist in Minneapolis, working for the first openly gay Minneapolis City Council member, Brian Coyle, in between stints at UMN. When he started, he was closeted and ended up dropping out. But after coming out, he eventually went back and finished his degree in political science. 

“I didn’t have a perfect or easy experience there, that is to say, I essentially had a mental health breakdown while I was struggling to stay closeted, which is difficult to do,” St. George says. “But still, despite that, you meet the best people, the best friends of your life, and you have this great experience, in my case over a 10-year period.”

Their donations to the University of Minnesota and University of Michigan, Sullivan’s alma mater, go towards performing arts and study abroad programs. St. George says the performing arts have become a key part of their lives since moving to New York, and supporting those at the beginning of their journey while they might be struggling makes sense.

While Sullivan had the chance to study abroad a few times throughout his college career, St. George didn’t have the resources, but joined the Navy right after high school for four years and spent half of it overseas in Italy. 

The couple has travelled across the world from places like France to Senegal, experiencing the environment, culture, community and cuisine of every country they visit. St. George says you learn a lot about your own assumptions and things you might have taken for granted your whole life. What may seem normal to you as a Westerner may not exist for people in other places.

“We both just had the sense that the opportunity to get out of the United States is so important, and if you can make that available to more kids, especially, from my perspective, in music, it’s like, what a great gift, and so that’s a big part of why we’re doing this,” he says.