CSC News

Computer Science Alumnus Drew Banks is Giving Back in a Big Way

Engineering Communications

Drew Banks wants to build a culture of philanthropy.

Banks, who graduated from NC State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, donates each year to the College of Engineering. Education is a priority for him and his husband, Nick Rubashkin, and both of them have put a lot of thought into how to implement that in their giving.

“For both of us, we’re both from lower middle class backgrounds,” Banks said of himself and Rubashkin. “We’re both the kids that sort of jumped a class through having educational opportunities.”

Banks’ most recent gift to NC State is designated for the Women and Minority Engineering Programs, The Engineering Place and scholarship support for students in the College of Engineering.

“Education is important to both of us, and we have been trying our entire relationship to determine what that means in terms of philanthropy,” he said. “We started when my husband’s father was a grade school teacher and one thing we started was a tiny little scholarship at the school. That process helped me realize how much I wanted to craft our own goals and embed those in how we gave back.”

Banks and his partner worked for a year to get the scholarship in place. After that was finished, they knew they wanted to do more.

“We’ve looked at all of our schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford, and considered which ones could make the biggest impact,” he said. “Because of the cultural diversity of NC State, we thought it could be NC State, but it wasn’t until I started conversing with Anna [Knight, director of philanthropy] and realized that NC State can craft our gift in the way we wanted, which is focused on minority outreach.”

Banks is the co-founder of Pie Digital and an expert in visual communications. He successfully worked to globally expand two European start-ups — Prezi and Drops — and helped broker the sale of Drops to Kahoot! Banks holds two patents in home automation and has written two novels, Able Was I and Ere I Saw Elba.

These days, Banks and Rubashkin live in San Francisco. They don’t get to visit campus often, but say it’s always a delight when they do. In 2023, Banks flew in to receive the Computer Science Hall of Fame Award, where he was blown away by the incredible students and alumni he got to interact with.

“NC State has changed dramatically since I went here, dramatically in a way that we both really support,” he said. “There were a lot of women represented and we were very excited about that.”

Soon after that, Banks reached out to Knight to discuss making a donation to NC State.

Banks remembers his time at NC State as a “life-changing adventure.” Initially, he lived with his grandmother in the Village District, formerly Cameron Village, and then moved onto campus. He worked in the statistics department, where he ran statistical analyses on soil content.

For me, building a culture of philanthropy means

doing exactly what NC State is doing.

“I think it was my second year when I decided to stay in Raleigh and find a summer job, and my boss recommended I work for a small stats company started by a former NC State stats professor,” Banks said. “That’s how I was first introduced to Jim Goodnight.”

Goodnight, founder of SAS Institute and philanthropist, funds the Goodnight Scholars Program. The program invites qualifying North Carolina residents who meet the family income and academic program requirement to apply to the program every spring before awarding a select group of students tuition assistance comparable to a full academic scholarship.

This is the kind of philanthropy that inspires Banks.

In addition to education, Banks is also interested in politics and women’s rights. The second is especially personal to Banks and Rubashkin, as Rubashkin is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco.

“That’s always been a third component of our philanthropy,” he said. “Making sure that women not only have access to reproductive services, but also that when they choose to give birth, that their wishes are respected.”

Education, though, will always be a priority, and Banks is grateful he can make a difference through NC State. He said that if he were to speak with someone thinking about donating to NC State, he would definitely recommend it if, one, they cared deeply about education and, two, they wanted to work with someone who would help them create gifts that they can customize based on their priorities.

“For me, building a culture of philanthropy means doing exactly what NC State is doing,” he said. ”Understanding that everyone’s philanthropic goals differ and doing your best to match the philanthropic goals of your donors with your financial needs, and doing it in a scalable way so that you can fund as much as possible with ongoing philanthropic efforts.

“NC State has outreach to STEM schools across the state, regardless of their funding levels or the percentage of their students that go on to higher education,” he added. “That is really important to us.”

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This post was originally published in the College of Engineering Alumni Magazine.