Amount donated in 2013: $103-million
Top beneficiary: Tsinghua University
Background: Mr. Schwarzman is co-founder and chairman of the Blackstone Group, an investment firm.
Several years ago the president of Tsinghua University, in Beijing, approached Mr. Schwarzman with a pitch: Donate money to help the university attract more international students.
Mr. Schwarzman asked for time to think about it because he was trying to figure out what types of social problems to tackle through his philanthropy.
Much of the world was still reeling from the global financial crisis, but China’s economy was growing, Mr. Schwarzman says, and he worried the situation would eventually lead to resentment and anger toward China by Western countries.
“I felt this was a potentially destabilizing scenario, and it would lead to economic, trade, and possibly military tensions,” he says.
One solution, he decided, was to create a fellowship program inspired by the Rhodes Scholarships. He studied that program, then committed $100-million to create Schwarzman Scholars, a program that will bring 200 graduate students a year to study and live on a new campus that will open in 2016. Students from around the world will focus on one of four areas of study: business and economics, engineering, international relations, or public policy.
In addition to his $100-million gift, Mr. Schwarzman has helped the university raise $160-million from other individuals and companies toward a $200-million goal.
Mr. Schwarzman also donated to other causes last year, including a total of $3-million to Inner City Scholarship Fund, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Literacy Partners, New Yorkers for Children, the New York Public Library (to which he gave $100-million in 2008), and the USA Track & Field Foundation.
“There’s a lot of different wonderful things that can be done with philanthropy, and none of them have to be done to the exclusion of other things,” says Mr. Schwarzman.
The Philanthropy 50: Browse the full list of America’s most generous donors in 2013.
Learn more: See this donor’s listing in our database of major gifts, America’s Top Donors.
