A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Prairie View A&M University, RIP Medical Debt, and Other Groups
Billionaire novelist MacKenzie Scott gave a total of $4.2 billion on Tuesday to 384 nonprofits, including those that help people affected by the economic fallout from the pandemic, social and racial-justice groups, and historically Black colleges and universities.
Scott left it up to the charities to decide whether to publicize how much money she gave them. Among those that announced donations, Prairie View A&M University and the debt relief charity, RIP Medical Debt, received $50 million apiece, the largest of all the Scott gifts announced this week.
Scott, who helped create Amazon with her former husband, Jeff Bezos, is among the richest women in the world. Forbes recently pegged her wealth at nearly $57 billion.
Fordham University
Mario Gabelli and Regina Pitaro gave $35 million through their Gabelli Foundation for a wide array of programs in the Gabelli School of Business, which was named for Gabelli after a previous gift.
The new gift will go toward scholarships for M.B.A. and Ph.D. students, expand the M.B.A. and the Ph.D. programs, and be used to back faculty and other programs. In addition, the donors will match scholarship gifts from other donors for the Gabelli School’s M.B.A. and Ph.D. students, up to $7 million.
Gabelli is chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors, a financial firm in Rye, N.Y.; he graduated from the university in 1965. Regina M. Pitaro is a 1976 graduate of Fordham College at Rose Hill and a trustee fellow of Fordham University.
Rising Up Larkin Street Youth Services and All Home
Joe Gebbia donated $25 million ($12.5 million apiece) to back the two charities’ ongoing efforts to tackle homelessness and help people in San Francisco and surrounding areas who are struggling from the economic fallout caused by the pandemic.
The money will go toward Rising Up’s campaign to raise $35 million to reduce youth homelessness and to All Home’s efforts to create a regional system to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area.
Gebbia is a graphic and industrial designer who co-founded Airbnb. He currently serves as its chief product officer. He also founded Neighborhood, a modular office-furniture company.
Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and Regional Affiliates
Mary (Mickey) Welch left $15 million to endow the Mary M. Welch Advised Fund, which will benefit people in the Parkersburg, W.V., area.
Welch was a businesswoman known among her business peers as the first woman in West Virginia to drill an oil well. Before retiring in 2014, she owned several companies, including Welch Oil & Gas, Welch Music, and Commercial Office Equipment. She died last year.
Whitworth University
David and Dana Dornsife pledged $10 million to support Whitworth’s growing graduate health-science programs, including the university’s recently established doctoral programs in occupational therapy and physical therapy.
David Dornsife is chairman of the Herrick Corporation, a steel fabricator and contractor in Stockton, Calif. Dana Dornsife founded the Lazarex Cancer Foundation.
The couple are longtime donors to the university and have family and other ties to the institution that date back to the 1970s. During the 1990s, David Dornsife served on the San Francisco Theological Seminary Board with Whitworth President Emeritus Bill Robinson.
Portland Community College Foundation
The poet Carolyn Moore left a property and cash totaling $5.5 million to the community college to create a writers residency program. The property includes a 2,500-square-foot log cabin on nine acres in Tigard, Ore.
Moore, who died in 2019, stipulated in her will that she wanted her property, and the funds to maintain it, to be given to an institution or organization in her honor. Several colleges and organizations sent in proposals. Portland Community College was chosen because of the depth of writing programs available for its students.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health
Bill and Sue Conaty pledged $5.25 million to help pay for a new hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Bill Conaty led General Electric’s human-resources department for many years and worked for the corporation for 40 years. He currently serves as a senior advisory partner at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private-equity firm in New York. He has served on Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Board of Trustees for nine years.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated weekly.
