Why Give to Northwood?

Northwood has emphasized what its founders and intellectual mentors called the “Northwood Idea.” The “Northwood Idea” teaches students the importance of individual moral responsibility, private property, free markets, and self-governance.

“We must make people understand that the basic idea of a free society is fundamentally a humane idea. It is fundamentally the idea that people as individuals have responsibilities to themselves and to one another that cannot be met by turning them over to somebody else, by electing government officials who will take money out of your pocket in order to spend it on supposedly good objectives. The responsibilities can only be met by us as individuals.”

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist, helped shape our philosophy and wrote the foreword to Northwood University’s “When We Are Free.”

Friedman’s words, and the work of Arthur E. Turner and R. Gary Stauffer, animate and inspire those who work and learn at Northwood University. Our mission is to develop free-enterprise leaders who drive global economic and social progress.