A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
MacKenzie Scott gave $65 million through her Yield Giving fund. The gift is unrestricted. Leaders at the community development organization said in a news release that they plan to spend the coming weeks discussing how to use Scott’s gift.
The national nonprofit invests in affordable housing efforts, retail and community spaces, and education programs, all with an aim to help low-income people improve their financial standing and their neighborhoods and to advance racial equity.
This is the second donation Scott has made to the organization. She gave LISC $40 million in 2020, when she started to contribute large sums to charity. Most of the nonprofits to which she has given over the past four years have received a one-time donation, but a small group has been surprised with a second gift.
University of Rhode Island
Helen Schilling left $65 million to establish and endow the Helen Izzi Schilling ’54 and Francis Schilling Scholars Program, which will provide up to $20,000 a year for four years to high-achieving undergraduate students majoring in science, technology, engineering, or math fields.
Helen Izzi Schilling graduated from the university in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and then earned a master’s degree at Ohio University. She went on to work for five decades as a registered dietitian in various hospitals. She also taught in higher education and founded a consulting business. She died in 2020 at 87.
Her late husband, Francis, had a long career at General Electric, where he was vice president and head of GE Medical Systems, a division that introduced CT and MRI scanners to doctors and hospitals in the 1970s. He died in 2020 at age 89, seven months after his wife’s death.
RootOne
In one of his last acts of philanthropy before he died on November 4, the late Bernie Marcus gave $60 million through his Marcus Foundation to support and expand the nonprofit’s work providing Jewish teens looking for a deeper connection to Israel and their Jewish identity funds for trips to Israel. The gift will also back the organization’s educational programs.
Marcus co-founded the home improvement giant Home Depot in 1979 after being fired from his job as CEO of Handy Dan Home Improvement, a Los Angeles chain of stores that closed in 1989. Marcus was a longtime donor to Jewish causes, medical research, veterans groups and more, and gave about $2 billion to charity during his lifetime. He appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of biggest donors three times.
Including this donation, Marcus gave RootOne more than $140 million over the past four years, including the $20 million he donated in 2020 to establish the nonprofit.
Bob Woodruff Foundation
Craig Newmark gave $25 million through his Craig Newmark Philanthropies to back the foundation’s many programs that support U.S. veterans, active military members, and their families. Newmark serves on the foundation’s Board of Directors.
He founded the classified-advertising website Craigslist, and has devoted huge sums to charity over the years. Newmark has focused much of his giving on election integrity, journalism ethics, security, and cybersecurity, as well as on helping veterans and their families. He has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors four times since 2018.
Stevenson School
Will and Calla Griffith gave $10 million to support the private Pebble Beach, Calif., school’s new Math, Science, and Engineering Center, and to establish the John Senuta Math Center.
Will Griffith is an executive at ICONIQ Capital, a San Francisco firm that operates venture capital, growth equity, and charitable giving funds and provides financial, philanthropic, and other advisory services to ultra-high net worth
clients. He graduated from Stevenson School in 1989.
University of Mississippi
Jonathan and Paula Jones gave $10 million to support the construction of a new home for the Patterson School of Accountancy, which will be named Jones Hall.
Jonathan Jones founded Jones Capital, a Houston firm that owns 11 industrial, infrastructure, and technology companies. Prior to founding his firm in 2018, Jones served as CEO of the Jones Companies, a Sandy Hook, Miss., lumber company founded by his grandfather Lloyd Jones. He graduated from the university in 2004 and serves on the University of Mississippi Foundation Board of Directors.
Tampa General Hospital Foundation
Wrigley gum heiress Helen Rich gave $8.5 million to establish a breast cancer center within the TGH Cancer Institute, and to create a global health program in the surgery department.
Rich founded a publishing company and runs a horse farm in Odessa, Fla. She is a breast cancer survivor and was treated at Tampa General. Her great grandfather William J. Wrigley founded the Wrigley chewing gum company in 1891.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Allison Morrow pledged more than $5.1 million to support science programs and the colleges’ annual fund over the next five years. Morrow is an investor who served early in her career as a senior vice president for institutional bond sales at the now-shuttered New York investment giant Lehman Brothers. She graduated from William and Hobart in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree in economics.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.