A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates pledged $15 billion to their foundation to bolster its endowment and to further the grant maker’s work addressing inequity around the globe. The Gateses, who are divorcing, also announced that they are increasing the number of trustees on the foundation’s board and that if in two years the philanthropists decide they can no longer work together effectively, Melinda French Gates will resign her post as co-chair and trustee.
The $50 billion foundation is among the richest grant makers in the world. The Gateses have awarded nearly $55 billion through their foundation and other Gates family foundations going back to 1994. The multibillionaire couple have poured huge sums into their foundation over the years since they launched it in 2000 and have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors 12 times over the last two decades.
University of Oregon
The billionaires Phil and Penny Knight gave $500 million to support programs and expand the faculty at the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. In 2016, they provided $500 million to create the center with the goal of accelerating the process of turning scientific discoveries into tools, treatments, and developments to improve people’s lives.
The Knights’ latest donation will be used to expand the center’s bioengineering and applied scientific research programs, support students, and pay for the center’s second building. It will also be used to hire 14 to 16 additional faculty members and their research teams in bioengineering, regenerative medicine, biomedical data science, and other applied interdisciplinary sciences.
Phil Knight earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the university in 1959 and, with his track coach there, Bill Bowerman, started the sports-gear company that would become Nike. The couple are prolific donors and have given the university more than $1 billion over the years. They have landed on the Philanthropy 50 eight times since 2006.
Yale University School for Drama
Entertainment mogul David Geffen donated $150 million through his foundation to pay the tuition of its current and future students. The school has been renamed the David Geffen School for Drama at Yale. The gift will eliminate tuition not only for students earning a degree at the drama school but for those in certificate programs as well.
Geffen founded Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and Geffen Pictures and co-founded the film studio DreamWorks SKG. He is not a Yale alumnus but has had a decadeslong relationship with the university that started during the 1978-79 academic year when, during a break from the entertainment industry, he led a semesterlong seminar at Yale called “The Music Industry and Arts Management.” An overview course, it addressed topics such as recording, publishing, production, distribution, finance, and publicity.
Geffen is a serial donor of major gifts and has given a total of more than $700 million since 2002 to a variety of institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, University of California at Los Angeles, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He has appeared on the Philanthropy 50 six times over the last 19 years.
Saint Joseph’s University
James Maguire gave $20 million to help pay for a major expansion of the university’s athletics complex, which will include a new basketball practice center that will house the men’s and women’s basketball programs, with dedicated space for each team. The revamped complex will also include an indoor turf training facility and spaces for physical and mental well-being programs for student athletes.
Maguire founded and is chairman emeritus of Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corporation, which owns a number of insurance businesses. He graduated from Saint Joseph’s College in 1958 with a degree in industrial relations.
University of Southern California Marshall School of Business
Randall Kendrick donated $20 million to create the Randall R. Kendrick Global Supply Chain Institute and to support scholarships and endow new faculty positions.
Kendrick founded and leads Xebec Realty, an industrial real-estate firm with offices in Los Angeles; Orange County, Calif.; and Dallas. A USC alumnus, he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and completed the university’s Real Property Development and Management Program in 1986.
University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars Foundation
Thomas and Jordan Saunders and their daughter, Calvert Saunders Moore, gave $10 million to establish two Thomas A. Saunders III Family Jefferson Scholars Foundation University Professorships for prominent scholars in the fields of science and medicine.
The university has long awarded the title “University Professor” to exceptionally distinguished faculty. All University Professors are appointed by and report to the provost and president and must be approved by the university’s Board of Visitors. The program is a powerful recruitment and retention tool.
Thomas Saunders III is CEO of Ivor and Company, a private investment firm in Palm Beach, Fla. He is a former partner and senior managing director of Morgan Stanley in New York and co-founded Saunders Karp and Megrue, a private-equity firm that merged with Apax Partners in 2005. He graduated from the UVA’s Darden School of Business with an MBA in 1967.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
