As China’s financial power grows, two big donors on the list are starting to pay more attention to steering their philanthropy there—and perhaps not surprisingly, both are financiers.
Stephen Schwarzman provided $100-million to start a fellowship program modeled on the Rhodes Scholarships and also agreed to raise money from others. Interest in the cause is so high that he has already persuaded companies and other donors to provide $160-million.
Meanwhile, Richard and Susan Rogel earmarked $10-million of a $50.1-million gift to strengthen Chinese studies at the University of Michigan.
Mr. Schwarzman, chairman of the Blackstone group, says he made his gift after the president of Tsinghua University, in Beijing, asked him to donate money to help the university attract more international students.
Mr. Schwarzman (No. 23 on the Philanthropy 50) asked for time to think about it because he was trying to figure out what types of social problems to tackle through his philanthropy but ultimately decided to make China a top concern for his giving.
China’s economy was growing fast at a time when many other countries had been struggling to escape recession, a situation Mr. Schwarzman feared would eventually lead to resentment and anger toward China by Western countries.
“I felt this was a potentially destabilizing scenario, and it would lead to economic, trade, and possibly military tensions,” he says.
One solution, he decided, was to create a fellowship program modeled on the Rhodes Scholarships.
He studied how that program worked, then committed $100-million to create the Schwarzman Scholars to bring 200 graduate students a year to a new campus that will open in 2016. Students from around the world will focus on one of four areas of study: business and economics, engineering, international relations, or public policy.
Supporting Chinese Studies
The gift from Richard and Susan Rogel (tied for No. 39) was motivated by a desire to ease tensions between China and the United States.
Mr. Rogel is president of the investment firm Tomay and a former chief executive of the health-insurance company Preferred Provider Organization of Michigan. The Rogels pledged $50.1-million to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor last year, directing $10-million to bolster the university’s Center for Chinese Studies.
“We believe that [this] will lead to mutually beneficial engagement, research, and global collaboration,” said Mr. Rogel, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the university in 1970.
Officials at the institution said the gift will enable students and faculty at the center to collaborate more closely with their counterparts at universities in China.
