Al Warrington, namesake of UF's Warrington College of Business Administration, announced a $16 million gift to the college Thursday.
The donation will also be eligible for a matching grant from the state, pushing the total to $32 million.
Warrington said the money will be used to hire more faculty in the college, which has a faculty-student ratio of more than 90-to-1.
"We got great faculty," he said. "The problem is there's just not enough of them."
UF's overall faculty-student ratio is listed as 20.3-to-1 in the latest U.S. News & World Report, but internal numbers put the ratio higher, at 22-to-1.
Warrington's donation will be used to establish an endowment, and the yearly income from the endowment will fund the salaries and benefits of new faculty.
The money will fund a constant stream of new faculty, four at a time, as they work to attain tenure in the college.
The college currently has about 100 faculty.
Warrington said he will donate the money over time.
"I'll be making the gifts as I see fit and as I can afford it," he said.
The state's portion will also not fall into place right away, as the state has temporarily halted its matching grants program due to a lack of money.
The college was named after Warrington, a UF Trustee and businessman from Houston, in 1996.