Gifts Roundup: $20 Million for ACLU, and $12 Million for Wichita State

Cindy Chew, UCSF

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

American Civil Liberties Union

Allison Shelley/ACLU

Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman pledged $20 million for endowment and to match donations from other donors. The money will come through the couple’s Crankstart Foundation.

Moritz founded Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm. He and Heyman are former journalists. The couple have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the most generous donors three times in the past decade.

Wichita State University

Wayne and Kay Woolsey committed a total of $12 million, including $10 million to build a new home for the W. Frank Barton School of Business, and $2 million to support field camp petroleum geology programs in the Geology Department.

Wayne Woolsey founded Woolsey Companies, an oil and natural-gas exploration and production business. Kay Woolsey is vice president of the company and handles land, legal, and administrative functions. Their son Marc is a Wichita State graduate.

John Carroll University

The Boler family gave $10 million through their foundation to establish the John M. and Mary Jo Boler School of Business.

The family runs the Boler Company, which has holdings in the transportation industry. The company was founded by the late John Boler and is currently led by his son, Matthew. John Boler died in 2016.

Mount Sinai Health System

Leonard and Emily Blavatnik donated $10 million through their family foundation to create the Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Blavatnik Family – Chelsea Medical Center, both of which are in New York.

Leonard Blavatnik is a British-American businessman who was born in Russia. He runs Access Industries, a holding company. He appeared on The Chronicle’s 2010 Philanthropy 50 list.

University of Maryland at Baltimore

Bill and Joanne Conway gave $10 million through their Bedford Falls Foundation for scholarships in the School of Nursing.

The money will provide scholarships to 341 undergraduate and graduate students in the nursing school. This is the third gift the Conways have made in the past three years to support scholarships for undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral nursing students at the university.

Bill Conway co-founded the private-equity firm the Carlyle Group. He attracted attention seven years ago when he asked the public for ideas about how best to donate a total of $1 billion to promote job creation.

University of Virginia

Jane Batten donated $10 million for the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, named for Batten’s late husband in 2007 after the family endowed the business school with a $100 million gift.

This latest gift will support the new Batten Family Bicentennial Scholars Fund, which helps graduate students in the Batten School’s Master of Public Policy program.

Frank Batten owned the media company Landmark Media Enterprises and co-founded the Weather Channel, the country’s first 24-hour nationwide cable weather channel. He died in 2009.

The Battens have appeared on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list four times since 2000.

Wittenberg University

Thomas Hagen and Sarah Hagen McWilliams gave $10 million to renovate Koch Hall, which houses the university’s visual-arts programs, and update the building’s mechanical and electrical systems.

Thomas Hagen is chairman of the Erie Insurance Group, where he began as a part-time file clerk in 1953 and retired 40 years later as chief executive officer.

Sarah Hagen McWilliams earned an art-history degree at Wittenberg in 1988 and serves on the university’s Board of Directors.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.