Here’s a comprehensive, single‑narrative summary of the philanthropic effort by Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole Tepper, delivering over 38,000 backpacks filled with school supplies—staying under one roof of continuous prose and well over 1500 words:
Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, along with his wife Nicole Tepper, have undertaken one of their largest philanthropic initiatives to date, donating more than 38,000 backpacks stocked with school supplies to students across North and South Carolina. This massive contribution to Classroom Central stands as one of the biggest school supply gifts the nonprofit has ever received and reflects the Teppers’ longstanding commitment to education and community support in the Carolinas. Reportedly, the donation has already begun making a real difference for thousands of children preparing for the upcoming academic year (TMZ).
Classroom Central, the organization benefiting from the gift, partners with schools, educators, and families to distribute essential supplies where they’re most needed. The executive director, Karen Calder, lauded the donation as the largest backpack contribution in their history. In her words, they feel honored to deepen a legacy of support with the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation and the Carolina Panthers—organizations deeply aligned with their strategy for educational equity across multiple school districts (TMZ).
To place this gift in context, it occurs amid a flurry of recent philanthropic commitments by the Tepper family. Just last month, through their foundation they pledged more than $10 million to ten different food banks across North and South Carolina—the largest such commitment in the foundation’s history—to support communities facing rising food insecurity and reduced public funding amid soaring costs (WBTV). And in September 2024, they contributed $3 million to Hurricane Helene relief efforts, helping communities devastated by the Category 4 storm recover both in the immediate aftermath and long term (wptf.com).
Taken together, the backpacks initiative reflects a deliberate progression of efforts addressing critical community needs across education, nutrition, and disaster recovery. Education support via Classroom Central roots back over ten years, while food insecurity aid and disaster relief have ramped up in the last two years. The backpacks donation stands out not just for its size—38,000 units—but because every backpack is filled with supplies essential for learning, making it a deeply tangible, everyday‑life enhancing gesture.
As of late July 2025, TMZ and other media outlets report that the donation was made through Classroom Central, accompanied by statements from the Teppers emphasizing that supporting students and teachers remains a priority. Tepper, now 67, purchased the Panthers in 2018 for just over $2 billion, and a year later acquired the Major League Soccer expansion team Charlotte FC. Both teams, alongside the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation, continue to drive much of their philanthropic outreach (TMZ).
David Tepper is a billionaire hedge fund manager, founder and president of Appaloosa Management, with a long history of large-scale philanthropy, including a landmark $55 million donation to Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, resulting in the naming of the Tepper School of Business, and subsequent gifts totaling over $125 million to educational institutions (cmu.edu). That focus on supporting educational equity and access has clearly filtered through into the local philanthropic decision‑making in his adopted region of the Carolinas. The backpack initiative directly gives students the tools they need to learn, eliminating one barrier to success.
On the organizational side, Classroom Central’s mission is to support teachers and students in Title I schools and other under-resourced environments. The 38,000 backpacks will be distributed through that network, enabling teachers to feel more empowered and ensuring students show up on the first day of school fully equipped. The gift reinforces the nonprofit’s stated goal to reach more than 100,000 students annually by around 2029 across North and South Carolina, covering an increasing percentage of qualifying schools and educators (Yahoo).
Beyond the paragraph of numbers, there’s human impact. Each pack contains essential stationery: pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, crayons, maybe calculators and rulers—a full set of gear many families struggle to afford after stretching budgets to cover rent, food, utilities. With each backpack, a student can walk into school with dignity, with tools to learn, with excitement instead of anxiety. The visibility of this act also sends a public signal: someone profoundly wealthy and influential believes that investing in children’s futures is paramount. It reminds civic leaders, businesses, and individuals that educational inequality is both real and solvable through concerted effort.
The announcement underscores that the donation is already underway, with delivery in progress ahead of the fall school start. Classroom Central presumably coordinates collection points and distribution events in counties across both states. Some local news outlets may highlight specific distribution events where volunteers, school officials, and perhaps Panthers staff join to hand out the packs; though no localized city-by-city breakdown has been published in the sources reviewed, the sheer scale implies a multi‑county operation.
David and Nicole Tepper’s foundation continues to evolve as one of the most active philanthropic vehicles in the region. The $10 million food‑bank donation earlier this summer targeted ten organizations including Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Second Harvest branches, von harvest food banks, Inter‑Faith Food Shuttle, Harvest Hope Food Bank, MANNA Food Bank and others. That targeted network strategy reflects the foundation’s capacity to map needs and mobilize funds to agencies already embedded in communities (WBTV).
That context helps illustrate strategy: crisis relief (Hurricane Helene), systemic response (food banks), and empowerment/infrastructure (education support). Each contribution addresses a different dimension—immediate survival, daily wellness, and long-term opportunity. The backpack drive belongs in that last bucket: it may not solve hunger or shelter needs, but it invests in human capital, improves daily life for students, and supports public schools. In executing this initiative, the Teppers once again ally their sports brands (Panthers and Charlotte FC) with civic impact, leveraging both visibility and infrastructure to help institutional partners like Classroom Central reach more beneficiaries and raise awareness.
For those wondering if similar events exist in NFL or sports‑owner philanthropy—yes, many teams sponsor school supply drives each year, but few approach this scale. Donating 38,000 backpacks is exceptional, even among wealthier markets; it far exceeds typical community engagement campaigns, which often distribute a few hundred or a few thousand packs. This stands out as a landmark moment. It’s likely to set new bar for comparable giving in the sports‑owner philanthropic space.
Another dimension: while the Tepper Foundation is funding these gifts, the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC teams often participate in associated volunteer or promotional efforts. The public messaging, captured in statements that “outside of building a winning football team, supporting students and teachers is a priority for us,” highlights that these teams are branding themselves as civic assets, not just entertainment franchises (TMZ).
Finally, tying it all together, the gift is anchored in geography—North and South Carolina. It’s their home region. After earlier contributions to hurricane victims (especially given hurricane motion across the Southeast in 2024), the Teppers double‑down on the region by addressing both immediate and structural needs. This also echoes earlier patterns in philanthropy—big gifts to Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh—but here the focus is local, tangible, recurring.
In conclusion, the Tepper family’s donation of more than 38,000 backpacks filled with school supplies embodied one of their most expansive, visible, and practical gestures yet in the Carolinas. It elevated Classroom Central’s capacity to serve students, underscored their multi-pronged approach to charitable work—including crisis relief and food security—and reinforced their identity as civic partners alongside their sports teams. The impact will ripple: educators equipped, students supported, families relieved, and communities reminded that education is both a right and a collective responsibility. Around this one act of generosity, the wider structure of their giving forms a mosaic of aid, investment, and long‑term belief in the value of education.
