A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
California Institute of Technology
Los Angeles billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick gave $750 million to build the Resnick Sustainability Resource Center and endow environmental research related to the effects of climate change.
The Resnicks founded the Wonderful Company, which owns the food and beverage brands Fiji Water, POM Wonderful, and Wonderful Pistachios, among others.
They’ve given a number of large gifts to education and other types of nonprofits over the years (including previous gifts to Cal Tech) and have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors three times since 2008.
Dartmouth College
Michaela and Zdenek Bakala gave $25 million to the Tuck School of Business through their Bakala Foundation USA. The gift will create the Bakala Global Suite as part of the business school’s international education programs.
Zdenek Bakala is a Czech-born investor and philanthropist. He graduated from Tuck in 1989. Michaela, also born in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), completed the Tuck Executive Program at Dartmouth.
Syracuse University Athletics
John and Laura Lally pledged $25 million for new athletics facilities, operations, and other projects.
John Lally retired as president of PCB Piezotronics, a sensor-technology manufacturer that was co-founded by a family member in 1967 and sold in 2016.
He graduated from the university’s Whitman School of Management in 1982 with a dual degree in marketing and transportation-and-distribution management, and he played on the university’s football team from 1977 to 1981.
University of California at Los Angeles
Matthew and Jennifer Harris donated $20 million through their Bedari Foundation to establish the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, which will be housed in the division of social sciences.
Programs at the institute will support research on kindness — and the actions, thoughts, feelings, and social institutions associated with kindness — and will bring together researchers from across disciplines at UCLA and elsewhere.
Matthew Harris is a partner at Global Infrastructure Partners, in New York, where he leads the firm’s global-energy industry investment team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA in 1984.
California State University at Fresno
In addition to their Caltech gift, Lynda and Stewart Resnick pledged $10 million last week to construct a new student union building and pay for its operations and maintenance. A portion of the gift will be used to establish the Wonderful Scholar Center where scholarship recipients attending Fresno State will receive tutoring and counseling.
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
Billionaire financier Kenneth Griffin gave $7.5 million to launch the Ken Griffin Alpha-synuclein Imaging Competition, a program that will back teams of researchers working to develop an imaging tool to track Parkinson’s disease in the living brain.
Griffin founded the hedge-fund firm Citadel, and his net worth has been pegged at more than $12 billion by Forbes. He is a prolific donor who has given to a variety of nonprofit institutions over the years. In 2017 he pledged $125 million through his foundation to support University of Chicago’s economics department, and he landed on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of big donors for a $150 million donation he gave to Harvard in 2014.
American University
Alan and Amy Meltzer donated $7 million to support athletics and Israel Studies. Of the total, $5 million will go toward the new Center for Athletic Performance, and $2 million will be used to establish the Alan L. Meltzer and Amy Meltzer Fellowship in the university’s Center for Israel Studies.
Alan Meltzer founded the Meltzer Group, an insurance-brokerage firm in Bethesda, Md. He graduated from the university and has served on its Board of Trustees since 2007.
University of Virginia
Robert and Molly Hardie gave $7 million for athletics and student health. Of the total, the two are directing $6 million to back new athletic facilities and programs and $1 million to construct the university’s new student health-and-wellness center.
Robert Hardie is co-chairman and CEO of H7 Holdings, which invests in equities, private companies, and alternative assets; and Level One Partners, another investment firm. He earned a bachelor’s degree from UVA and an MBA and Ph.D. from the university’s Darden School of Business. He taught general management at Darden as an adjunct faculty member from 1999 to 2007.
Molly Hardie also co-chairs H7 Holdings. She graduated from the university’s School of Medicine in 2000.
University of Michigan
Sanford and Joan Weill donated $5 million through their family foundation to the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy for education and work-force programs for disadvantaged and underrepresented youths in Detroit.
Half of the money will be used to create a fund to support collaborations with NAF (a nonprofit organization that helps public high-school students) to create opportunities for youth in Detroit and surrounding areas.
The other half will establish the Weill Scholars Fund to back tuition and stipends for graduate students at the Ford School who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds and want to work in areas aimed at advancing diversity in public policy.
Sanford Weill is the former head of Citibank. The couple are serial donors who have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of big donors eight times since 2001.
Morehouse College
William Pickard and Judson Pickard Jr., who are brothers, gave $2 million to establish the Pickard Scholars Program, which will go to students from LaGrange, Ga.; the greater Cincinnati area; and the greater Detroit and Flint, Mich., areas.
William Pickard founded GAA Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management as well as GAA New Ventures, which invests in local economic-development efforts outside of GAA’s manufacturing and logistics business. He is also CEO of Bearwood Management McDonald’s, and a co-managing partner for MGM Grand Detroit Casino.
Judson Pickard owns a number of McDonald’s franchises in the greater Cincinnati area, is a former public schoolteacher, and worked as project manager for the Detroit Urban League. Two of his three sons graduated from Morehouse.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
Maria Di Mento directs the annual Philanthropy 50 , a comprehensive report on America’s top donors. She writes about wealthy philanthropists, arts organizations, key trends, and insights related to ultra-high-net-worth donors, among other topics.
