A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
City of Hope
The renowned geneticist Arthur Riggs donated $100 million to back research at the cancer and diabetes research and treatment center where he has worked for more than 50 years. Officials there have renamed the diabetes research center the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute.
Riggs has been at the forefront of biotechnology for much of his career. He was on the team that helped to develop the technology to create synthetic human insulin, and he developed recombinant DNA technology capable of producing the humanized monoclonal antibodies that are the foundation of modern treatments for diabetes, cancer, autoimmune diseases, blindness, and a host of other diseases.
He joined City of Hope’s department of molecular biology as an associate research scientist in 1969 and rose to senior researcher in 1974, becoming the chairman of the Division of Biology in 1981.
Including his latest gift, Riggs has given City of Hope more than $310 million over the last three decades and has kept it quiet until now. He said in a news release that he decided to publicize his latest donation in the hope that it would encourage other donors to back City of Hope’s efforts to develop new treatments to fight against diabetes and cancer.
XPrize Foundation
Elon Musk gave $100 million through his Musk Foundation to sponsor a new competition, the XPrize for Carbon Removal, a four-year competition with the aim of combating climate change.
The competition will award a grand prize of $50 million and smaller prizes to the creators of environmental projects that develop solutions to pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere and ocean and store it permanently and safely.
Musk founded Tesla Motors, the electric car company in Palo Alto, Calif.; and SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space-transportation-services company in Hawthorne, Calif. Musk was the wealthiest person in the world for a brief period last month. Forbes estimates his current net worth at roughly $175 billion.
Georgetown University Law Center
Agnes Williams left nearly $24 million to endow professorships, and Timothy and Linda O’Neill gave $10 million to establish the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.
Williams, who died last year, was one of 10 in the first class of women to attend law school at Georgetown University, earning a law degree in 1954. She then practiced law with the well-known defense attorney Edward Bennett Williams. They later married in 1960. Edward Williams earned a law degree from Georgetown in 1944 and founded the powerful Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly. He died in 1988.
Timothy O’Neill serves as senior counselor in the Executive Office of Goldman Sachs and is a member of the New York investment firm’s management committee. He earned a law degree from Georgetown in 1977 and is the current vice chairman of the university’s Board of Directors. Linda O’Neill is a former pediatric nurse practitioner. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Georgetown in 1977.
Marquette University College of Nursing
Darren and Terry Jackson donated $31 million to expand scholarship for students, with a focus on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within the nursing school; and to support its new teaching academy.
Scholarships supported by the gift will be designated for underrepresented students who are accepted into the College of Nursing, with additional scholarships added each year. Eventually, up to 80 scholarships per year will be awarded to Marquette nursing students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Darren Jackson is a retired president and CEO of Advanced Auto Parts, in Raleigh, N.C., and the former CFO of Best Buy. He graduated from Marquette’s College of Business Administration in 1986 and served as chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2012.
Terry Jackson graduated from Marquette’s College of Nursing in 1987 and went on to work as a nurse at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. Her mother and grandmother are Marquette alumnae.
University of California at Los Angeles
Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg gave $29 million to establish the Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Center for Precision Genomic Medicine, a center where scientists and physicians will work together on new efforts to improve the diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of genetic disorders.
Allen Ginsburg is a retired ophthalmologist and real-estate investor who completed his residency at UCLA in 1963. He maintained a medical practice in Redondo Beach, Calif., for many years.
National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Arthur Blank pledged $17 million through his Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation to add more space to the center’s Atlanta headquarters and to expand its programming.
Of the total, $15 million will fund a new three-story wing to its main building and $2 million will be dedicated to new programs on racial history and civil rights.
Blank co-founded the Home Depot chain and is chairman, owner, and CEO of the Atlanta Falcons football team. A prolific donor to charity, he recently landed the No. 23 spot on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors.
University of Wisconsin Health
Pleasant Rowland gave $10 million to help pay for the construction of an organ-transplant clinic at University Hospital. The new clinic will house more space for treatment and patients, including a more comforting and inviting family lounge. The clinic will also provide a full range of patient services in one location, alleviating the need for patients to travel to other areas of the hospital.
Rowland founded the Pleasant Company and the American Girl doll brand in 1986. She sold the company to Mattel in 1998 for $700 million. She later bought and restructured a home-decor company, MacKenzie-Childs, and sold it in 2008 to Twin Lakes Capital, a private-equity firm. Rowland is a longtime donor to arts and culture groups in Madison, Wis.
Her latest gift is one of her most personal. In 2012, after living almost 20 years in kidney failure, Rowland underwent a kidney transplant at University Hospital.
“It feels nearly impossible to say thank you enough to the kidney donor who saved my life and to the doctors and staff at University Hospital who made it happen,” said Rowland in a news release. “This gift is my way of saying thank you to the team for the incredible care I received here, to the many donors and their families for making such a selfless choice, and as a gift to the transplant recipients who will come here seeking a second chance at life.”
Yeshiva University
Felix and Miriam Glaubach donated $10 million to expand and update the work of the university’s career center, which will be renamed the Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development.
The Career Center is currently designed to prepare students to obtain job offers and admissions to graduate schools and to build successful careers. University officials plan to adopt a new model that will be better suited to meet today’s students’ needs by emphasizing a more personalized approach to career counseling and long-term career strategy.
Felix Glaubach is a retired orthodontist who founded Custom Care Concierge, a company that helps wealthy clients organize their day-to-day lives. He and his wife also co-founded Personal Touch Home Care, a company that provides home health care services like nursing, physical therapy, and long-term care. He serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
