A lot of the money big philanthropists committed last year will go to projects that rely on technology and biomedicine to spur new businesses and fight disease.
Among them: Irwin Jacobs, a co-founder of wireless-communications giant Qualcomm, and his wife, Joan, committed $133-million to support a dual-degree master’s program at Cornell Tech, a new science and engineering graduate school that Cornell University is building on New York’s Roosevelt Island. The graduate school aims to foster new business ventures between academe and industry.
A joint project of Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Jacobs Institute will enable students to earn master’s degrees from both universities simultaneously in information sciences. Students can choose to learn how to develop technologies that promote the sharing of online information, spur healthy living, or build infrastructure and physical spaces that are based on deep understanding of how people interact with their environment.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs (who rank No. 8 on the Philanthropy 50) both graduated from Cornell in 1954. They have supported both Cornell and Technion over the years and said they were motivated to give by a desire “to inspire and train a next generation of entrepreneurs.”
Stem-Cell Research
While creating new business ventures is top of mind for the Jacobses, establishing better drugs to help those with life-threatening diseases is part of what T. Denny Sanford hopes his $100-million pledge to the University of California at San Diego will accomplish.
The gift from Mr. Sanford (No. 20), chairman of United National Corporation, a banking business in Sioux Falls, S.D., will establish the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and pay for work to develop drugs and stem-cell therapies as well as support researchers working on clinical trials.
Mr. Sanford said he decided to donate money after Larry Goldstein, who leads the university’s stem-cell program, visited him and discussed what could be accomplished if his program could speed up the process of turning stem cells into therapies. Mr. Sanford, who spends part of the year living near San Diego, was impressed enough to pledge a large gift.
He says he hopes his donation will make it possible for doctors to use stem cells to treat a wide range of maladies, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and spinal-cord injuries.
“We’re on the cusp of turning years of knowledge into actual treatments,” said Mr. Sanford. “I want this gift to push that reality faster.”
‘Big and Audacious’
Phil Knight, a co-founder and the chairman of Nike, and his wife, Penelope (No. 3), also gave generously to pay for new therapies, but in their case all the dollars will focus on cancer.
Getting the commitment was not easy. Last April, Constance French, senior vice president at Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, and Brian Druker, director of OHSU’s Knight Cancer Center, asked Mr. Knight for $500-million for a 20-year project to expand research and early detection of deadly cancers. At first the philanthropist grew quiet, then he pretended to fall out of his chair.
“He thought we were going to ask him for $100-million,” said Ms. French. “I told him we were going big and audacious.”
Mr. Knight and his wife had readily given the organization big sums in the past, including $125-million in 2012 for a cardiovascular institute and $100-million in 2008 for a cancer institute. This time the philanthropist said he needed to think about it.
Mr. Druker and Ms. French called on Mr. Knight twice more in the following months, as did the presidents of both the university and the foundation. Mr. Knight was noncommittal but also suggested accelerating the project to 10 years.
Other visits followed, but while Mr. Knight said he liked the idea, he said nothing about money. The officials figured it would take many more months to convince him that the project was worth such a large donation.
Then suddenly at a university event in September, Mr. Knight stood up and announced that he and his wife would give the $500-million on the condition that the institution raise an additional $500-million from other donors over two years.
This time it was Mr. Druker who nearly fell off his chair. The offer and caveat to match the pledge, said Mr. Druker, were both “daunting and exhilarating at the same time.”