Philanthropists

Plus, Dan and Jennifer Gilbert have pledged $375 million for two new medical facilities, and MacKenzie Scott is giving $20 million for affordable housing in San Francisco.

Their $375 million gift will build two medical centers, one named for their son, who died at age 26 of neurofibromatosis.

Plus, University of Texas at Austin has landed $50 million for a new environmental studies field station, and MacKenzie Scott gave $10 million to a nonprofit that backs BIPOC-led businesses that provide jobs, training, and support to people who struggle to find employment.

Nearly half went to early-childhood education and development, but she also gave to strengthen maternal health, combat infant mortality, create affordable housing, and more.

He has said that more than 99 percent of his nearly $118 billion fortune will eventually go to charity.

Plus, Pamela Wood Avedisian gave $20 million to American University of Armenia, MacKenzie Scott gave $12 million for affordable housing, and three other institutions landed multimillion-dollar gifts.

Plus, actor Eliza Dushku Palandjian and her husband, Peter Palandjian, gave Brigham and Women’s Hospital $7.5 million for substance-abuse treatment, and MacKenzie Scott gave $10 million to a group that works to expand affordable housing.

Plus, the MD Anderson Cancer Center lands $16 million for brain cancer research, and Tulane gets $12 million for a data-science program.

Also, Florida Atlantic University received $11.5 million for research on amyloidosis, and a survivor of the Camp Fire in 2018 left $1.7 million to a Northern California community fund for its wildfire-recovery efforts.

Silicon Valley’s biggest names are backing new ways to organize and fund science research. Some worry their experiments signal a “move fast and break things” approach.