David H. Jacobs Jr. attended the IU Jacobs School of Music in the early 1970s, a school that now bears his family's name. Over the years, Jacobs has continued his family's longstanding support of IU. He has been a member of the IU Foundation's board of directors since 2006 and is a founding member of the Women's Philanthropy Council.
He supports a wide array of programs across the university, including the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the Maurer School of Law and the Kinsey Institute. He established a $100,000 matching program for the Society of the Friends of Music scholarship that bears the name of Kenda Webb, the late wife of Jacobs School of Music Dean Emeritus Charles Webb. Jacobs developed a close friendship with the couple while a student at IU.
In 2010, Jacobs gave the Maurer School of Law a $1.5 million gift to establish the John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award, the university's highest award given to an alumna or alumnus.
