A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Auburn University
The university in Alabama has received a pledge of $5 million from the retired basketball great Charles Barkley to endow scholarships for Black students at his alma mater. Barkley said in a statement that the Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down affirmative action prompted his decision.
“In my will, I am leaving Auburn $5 million,” he told AL.com, a media group in Alabama. “I’m going to change it to be just for scholarships for Black students. That’s just my way of trying to make sure Auburn stays diverse.”
Barkley is a television sports analyst and pundit. He played professionally from 1984 to 2000, first for the Philadelphia 76ers, then the Phoenix Suns, before retiring from the Houston Rockets. He also won two Olympic gold medals playing for the U.S. men’s basketball team.
University of Utah, Huntsman Cancer Institute
The cancer institute in Salt Lake City has received a challenge pledge of $75 million from Karen Huntsman through her Huntsman Foundation to back a new comprehensive cancer center that will develop new ways to care for and prevent the disease. The pledge will match gifts to build a new facility that will be located in Vineyard, Utah.
Karen Huntsman is the widow of Jon Huntsman Sr., the founder of the Huntsman Corporation, a chemicals manufacturer in Salt Lake City. He died in 2018.
The Huntsmans have appeared several times on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 ranking of U.S. donors. Most recently, they were No. 32 in 2011 after donating $41 million to their Huntsman Cancer Foundation.
NewYork-Presbyterian
Alexandra and Steven Cohen have given $35 million through their foundation to expand mental-health support for children and adolescents in crisis through its NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health hospital.
The gift will create more in-patient units and renovate an existing building to establish a new ambulatory-care center that will help to quickly diagnose and treat young people in crisis.
Steven Cohen is a hedge-fund manager who founded SAC Capital Advisors and Point72 Asset Management. He also owns the New York Mets professional baseball team. Alexandra Cohen is the president of the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Barbara and Frank Resnek gave $25 million to support and expand research into primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease, within the Resnek Family Center for PSC Research. The rare disease disrupts normal liver function and slowly causes cirrhosis and liver failure. There is no cure, and the only effective treatment for the disease is a liver transplant. The Resneks established the center with a $20.2 million gift in 2019.
Frank Resnik is a partner of Fenway Sports Group, the parent company of the Boston Red Sox professional baseball team. Barbara Resnik is a retired family lawyer. Including their latest gift, the couple have given the hospital at least $45 million to support research on primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at University Hospitals
Robert Jursich Sr. gave $15 million to establish the Robert and Marthe Jursich Care for Children Fund, which will support the expansion of a range of programs including efforts to advance clinical care, upgrade technology, and further medical research. The institution will name a hospital tower for the donor and his late wife, Marthe.
Robert Jursich Sr. is an Akron, Ohio, businessman who led six McDonald’s fast-food restaurant franchises in the Cleveland area, beginning in 1968. His late brother, John Jursich, was a lawyer who worked closely with legendary McDonald’s CEO Ray Kroc and was credited with saving the restaurant chain from bankruptcy in 1958. John Jursich died in 2015.
Salzburg Global Seminar
The chocolate-company heiress Victoria Beth Mars gave this international public-affairs nonprofit $11 million to add to its endowment and back its Pathways to Peace program, which advises international policy leaders on strategies to prevent war and advance diplomacy.
Mars is the former chairwoman of Mars Incorporated and current chairwoman of the board at the Salzburg Global Seminar, which has its headquarters in Washington and Salzburg, Austria.
Alliance for Early Success
MacKenzie Scott gave $10 million through her Yield Giving grant-making program through Lever for Change. The gift is unrestricted; officials at the organization that advances early-childhood policy said they plan to use the money to establish the Power Equity Initiative, a program that will bring together parents, practitioners, and other advocates to work to improve state policies that affect young children.
Scott is a novelist who helped create Amazon with her former husband Jeff Bezos. Her net worth is estimated at about $35 billion, and she has given a total of more than $14 billion to at least 1,600 nonprofits in the last three years. Scott appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors in 2020.
GBH Boston
Louis and Anthony Maglione bequeathed $6 million to the public broadcasting organization in Boston. The bequest is unrestricted and represents the bulk of the brothers’ estates. GBH officials said in a news release that they plan to use the money to support local events and programming at the GBH Boston Public Library Studio, GBH News’ digital efforts, and other programs.
Born and raised in Malden, Mass., the brothers never married and lived together in their childhood home for most of their lives. They were lifelong GBH viewers who loved documentaries and history programs.
They worked in modest-paying careers but built a fortune by investing in the stock market. Anthony Maglione worked for the Gillette Company in North Andover, Mass., for 25 years and was fond of giving investment advice to anyone who showed an interest. He died in 2021 at 70. Louis Maglione served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War era and later graduated from Lowell College. He spent most of his career working for the Veterans Administration in Jamaica Plain, Mass. He died in 2019 at 67.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
