Rady Children’s Hospital Gets $200 Million Donation (Gifts Roundup)

The Southern California philanthropists Ernest and Evelyn Rady announced a $200 million gift Thursday to the Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego to redevelop and expand the medical center.

Including this most recent gift, the couple have given close to $400 million to the hospital. The institution was named for them in 2006 when they donated $60 million to help pay for a new building. They also gave the hospital $120 million in 2014 to launch the Rady Pediatric Genomics and Systems Medicine Institute.

Their extensive giving to the children’s hospital follows a pattern of giving big to nonprofits in San Diego, their hometown. They donated $100 million in 2015 to the University of California at San Diego for its Rady School of Management, which was named for them in 2004, when they contributed $30 million to the business school.

In 2018, they gave $50 million to the San Diego Salvation Army to help move people struggling with homelessness into transitional housing, and they have given at least $30 million in recent years to the San Diego Zoo, including $10 million for its Africa exhibit and $20 million for its Animal Ambassadors program, an effort through which the zoo brings some of its animals to hospitals, senior centers, and other locations.

According to a Chronicle tally, the Radys have given a total of at least $665.4 million personally and through their family foundation over the past 15 years, and they have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 report of the biggest donors five times since 2004.

The couple’s fortune comes from a collection of insurance, financial-services, and real-estate companies Ernest Rady has founded since 1967, the year he launched American Assets. That business later became a publicly traded real-estate investment trust.

He founded Insurance Company of the West in 1971, and he led Westcorp, a financial-services firm, which merged with Wachovia Corporation in 2006 and is now a part of banking giant Wells Fargo.