Colgate University holds a particular place in J-P Conte’s story. He arrived as a first-generation college student, and he’s since become one of the school’s most significant benefactors. His giving there shows his philanthropic principles in practice.

Conte, the founder and managing partner of his family office, Lupine Crest Capital, and a member of Colgate’s class of 1985, committed $25 million toward a new campus social center. The gift was part of a broader $105 million announced by five alumni in 2025 for the university’s West Campus.

A First-Generation Student’s Return

Conte’s own path informs the gift. He’s talked about what the school meant to him as a young man from an immigrant family, and about wanting to widen that door for others. “My Colgate experience helped me achieve my personal and professional dreams, as both a first-generation student and the son of immigrants, by providing me with an education that continues to serve me today,” he said in the university’s announcement.

The New Conte House

The gift funds a lasting piece of campus rather than a one-time program, which fits Conte’s preference for permanent infrastructure. Named the Conte House, the building is designed as a social center for students across the university.

A gathering place serves a wider goal, too. Conte has framed his giving around helping students of all backgrounds feel at home, and a shared social hub reaches far more of them than a single scholarship line ever could. The whole student body gains from it, not a select few.

Principles Turned Into Brick and Mortar

The Colgate commitment lines up with the rules Conte has laid out for his foundation: back institutions with strong leadership, start with people early in their lives, and build things that endure. A campus building satisfies all three at once, which helps explain why he chose to fund one instead of a short-lived program.

Education sits at the center of that thinking. Conte has pointed to schooling as a cause where early, durable support changes lives, drawing on his own experience as the first in his family to attend college. His gift puts that belief into a structure meant to serve students for generations, long after the ribbon is cut. That’s the kind of gift he tends to make: concrete, lasting, and tied to a place he knows well. Colgate gave him a start, and he’s paying it forward in stone and mortar.