A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Center for Tech and Civic Life
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan pledged $100 million to ensure safe and reliable voting across the country. The money will be given through their Chan Zuckerberg donor-advised fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
The money will be used to help pay for poll-worker recruitment, hazard pay, and training; polling-place rental fees; temporary staffing support; drive-through voting; equipment to process ballots and applications; personal protective equipment for poll workers; and nonpartisan voter education from cities and counties. This is an additional donation on top of the $250 million the couple pledged to the organization in September.
The Facebook co-founder and his wife, a pediatrician, have given nearly $4 billion in recent years to their foundation and their donor-advised fund, through which they support three main areas: education, criminal justice, and science. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors six times since 2010.
Clemson University
Wilbur (Billy) and Ann Powers gave $60 million to expand the business school, which will be renamed the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, and will support scholarships, professorships, and academic programs.
Billy Powers founded and leads Powers Properties and Construction, a commercial construction firm in Florence, S.C.
Before starting the company in 1965, he worked as a land surveyor for the South Carolina Department of Transportation. He attended Clemson from 1953 to 1956 but left to work on his family’s farm. In 2004, the university awarded him an honorary doctor of humanities degree.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Raymond and Barbara Dalio gave $50 million through their Dalio Philanthropies to establish the Dalio Center for Health Justice, which will focus its efforts on improving health care equity for all patients and reducing health disparities that disproportionately affect people of color.
Raymond Dalio is a billionaire who founded Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund in Westport, Conn. The couple have given extensively to a variety of causes and to back education programs in Connecticut. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest givers three times since 2015.
Baylor University
Dan and Jenni Hord pledged $30 million to launch the Hord Scholarship Challenge, a program to encourage Baylor alumni to match the Hords’ giving for merit-based scholarships to help students bridge the gap between merit-based and need-based financial aid and unmet financial need.
Dan Hord is a partner at Hedloc Investment Company, an oil and gas firm, and the Western Property Group, a commercial property development and leasing company, both of which are located in Midland, Tex. He earned a degree from Baylor in 1989.
Jenni Hord is co-manager of Vanderpool Management, a commercial and residential property development and leasing firm. She earned a degree from Baylor in 1992.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Steven and Jackie Bell donated $14 million to pay for a new building in Kenan-Flagler Business School. The building will be named for the donors, who gave $11 million toward it last year.
Steven Ball founded Bell Partners, a real-estate investment and management company, in 1976. He graduated from UNC in 1967.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Media
Richard and Leslie Frank gave $7.5 million to create the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media.
Richard Frank served as president of Disney Studios from 1985 to 1994 and oversaw the creation of television sitcoms and films and the launch of the Disney Channel. He was president of Paramount Television Group from 1977 to 1985. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the university in 1965.
Leslie Frank is a former television news reporter and anchor for KABC in Los Angeles, where she covered politics, crime, and natural disasters. Earlier in her career she was the main anchor at KCPQ in Seattle. The couple now own and operate Frank Family Vineyards, a winery in Calistoga, Calif.
York College of Pennsylvania
Donald Myers gave $5 million for the nursing school, which will be renamed the Dr. Donald E. and Lois J. Myers School of Nursing and Health Professions.
Myers is a retired physician and 1951 graduate of York Junior College, the predecessor of York College of Pennsylvania. He said in a news release that he made the gift as a way to recognize the college’s role as a stepping stone to his 40-plus-year career as a physician and also to honor the memory of his wife, Lois. Lois Myers was a school teacher and reading specialist who died in 2017.
Fordham University School of Law
David Tanen donated $1.25 million to pay for programs, training, and education centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for faculty, students, staff, and Fordham’s alumni.
Tanen co-founded Two River Group Holdings, a life-sciences venture-capital firm in New York, and Kite Pharma, which was acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2017. He earned a J.D. from the law school in 1996.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
