A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle.
World Central Kitchen
Former 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg gave $6 million through his Bloomberg Philanthropies to provide free daily meals to the 30,000 public health care system employees working on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic at 11 acute-care hospitals and five long-term care facilities across New York’s five boroughs.
Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of the financial and media company Bloomberg LP, served as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013 and ran for president as a Democrat this year. He ended his presidential campaign in March.
A prolific giver, Bloomberg has landed on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors 15 times since 2004.
Center at Sierra Health Foundation
An anonymous donor gave $1.3 million to back the Fresno, Calif., nonprofit’s San Joaquin Valley Health Fund Covid-19 Response Cluster.
The health fund will make grants to local charities that provide direct support to farmworkers, undocumented individuals, immigrants, unhoused community members, formerly incarcerated people, and other particularly vulnerable populations throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley.
University of Maine Museum of Art
Donald and Linda Zillman pledged $1.3 million to expand the museum, which has been renamed for them. The money will pay for the construction costs of five new galleries.
Donald Zillman served in a number of leadership role through his 30-year career at the university. He was dean of the law school from 1991 to 1998 and served as the university’s interim provost and academic vice president from 1999 to 2000. He was interim president of the University of Maine at Fort Kent from 2001 to 2002 and president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle in 2006. He returned to the law school in 2014 as the Edward S. Godfrey Professor of Law.
Linda Zillman is an art historian who has written two catalogs and curated two exhibitions on Andy Warhol at the University of Maine Presque Isle.
Palm Beach County Food Bank
Lois Pope gave $1 million to back Food4OurKids, a program that provides food to more than 2,000 children in need of food assistance during the weekends and over the summer.
Pope is a longtime philanthropist who worked for 12 years as the art director for the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper, which was founded by her late husband, Generoso Pope. He died in 1988.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
