Major Gifts

The W. M. Keck Foundation on Monday will announce a $150 million gift to boost scientific research at USC's medical school and at two affiliated hospitals, adding to the university's recent success in attracting supersized donations.

The gift is the single largest in the 57-year history of the Keck Foundation, which has backed many scientific projects, including the famous Keck Observatory and telescopes in Hawaii. For USC, the money marks the third mega-gift since March, for a total of $460 million.

Veritus Group co-owner Jeff Schreifels started the Passionate Giving blog last month, and he's already posted some pretty interesting stuff — like his "10 Reasons Why Most Major Gift Programs Suck!"

Pierre Omidyar, the French-born founder and chairman of eBay, is giving $3 million to the American Friends of the Louvre that will go toward funding educational and scholarly programs on Persian art and culture at the Paris museum. The announcement comes just a few months after Iran declared that it would cut ties with the Louvre over a dispute involving the exhibition of Persian artifacts.

Organizers said that income from the new fund will go toward projects at or in collaboration with the Louvre, including special exhibitions, installations, conferences and publications.

A UC Davis alumnus who says that some of his most powerful college experiences took place on the athletics field has made a $2 million commitment to Intercollegiate Athletics — the largest single philanthropic contribution to athletics in the university's 102-year history.

Bruce Edwards, together with his wife, Diane, made the gift to support Aggie Stadium. Edwards is a 1960 graduate who played football and ran track for UC Davis. The funds will go toward the stadium’s maintenance and operations, and may be used for future enhancements or expansion.

Paul and Muffy Christen made a $20 million bequest to the South Dakota Community Foundation, which will provide the nonprofit agency with an estimated $562,000 per year in interest earnings to give to charities statewide.

The donation takes three parts. A quarter of it will be a donation to the South Dakota Fund, which makes unrestricted donations throughout the state. That $5 million grant is a "challenge grant," taking effect only when the foundation raises another $5 million to match it, for a total increase of $10 million.

It's difficult to resist petting these hard workers. But Freedom Service Dogs have a job to do. And the Englewood, Colo.-based organization that trains the canines and pairs them with people with disabilities who can benefit from these working dogs' help ensure that they're able to do that job.

The University of Maine’s field house and Memorial Gym project has received a huge boost as the result of a $5 million gift to the institution from Boston-based athletic products company New Balance.

The field house will be renamed the “New Balance Field House” and the student recreation and fitness center will be known as the “New Balance Student Recreation and Fitness Center” for a 20-year period in return for the $5 million gift.

While many charities are still struggling to raise money in the face of a sluggish economy, giving by America’s wealthiest donors appears to be making a comeback.

From January 1 through May 15, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has confirmed 225 donations of $1-million or more totaling close to $2.4-billion. That is at least $1-billion more than in 2010, when 145 such donations accounted for more than $1.3-billion.

And donations of $100-million or more also surged this year. In fact, gifts of that size have more than doubled since 2010.

Bard College, a small liberal arts institution in the Hudson Valley, has received a $60 million gift from the Open Society Foundations in recognition of its global involvement, which includes programs in New Orleans, Nicaragua and Russia, officials are to announce on Tuesday.

The gift from Open Society, which George Soros created in the 1980s to foster democracies around the world, will help the college bring its disparate programs under a new umbrella, the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement, and assure their continuing operation and growth.

The University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday received a record gift of $225 million for its School of Medicine from Philadelphia philanthropist Raymond G. Perelman and his wife Ruth.

Perelman signed the papers finalizing the gift on Tuesday at the home of University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, he said later Tuesday.

The gift benefiting the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, as it will now be known, had been in the works for about a year, Perelman said.