Major Gifts
March 29, 2011
San Diego philanthropist Conrad Prebys is giving the San Diego Zoo $15 million to launch a major redesign of its big cat and koala areas. This gift, announced Sunday afternoon, follows Prebys’ 2007 donation of $10.1 million to revamp the polar bear plunge and elephant care center.
Not only is this new pledge the largest single gift in the history of the Zoo, but CEO Doug Myers said Prebys is also the largest single donor to the Zoo at over $25 million. (In 2004 Joan Kroc bequeathed $10 million to the Zoo.)
March 15, 2011
The $80 million gift Duke University received from The Duke Endowment is the largest ever for the school and the largest ever awarded by the Charlotte-based funder. The funds, which will be paid out over multiple years, will be used to renovate three historic buildings that were part of the university's original construction.
March 9, 2011
The University of Southern California will announce Wednesday its largest donation ever, a $200-million gift from alumnus David Dornsife, the chairman of a large steel fabricating company, and his wife, Dana.
The Dornsifes' donation will go to USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the university's biggest academic unit, without restrictions on how it should be spent.
February 28, 2011
Children's Hospital of Orange County has received a record $30 million gift from a Garden Grove businessman to help fund a major expansion that will open in 2013. CHOC officials today will announce the donation, which is the largest in the hospital's history. The money comes from the estate of Robert Tidwell, a retired investment banker whose only other donation was a used computer.
February 7, 2011
Mayo Clinic announced long-time patient and philanthropist Richard O. Jacobson has given a $100 million gift to help establish the multi-site Mayo Clinic Proton Beam Therapy Program. This is the largest outright gift in the clinic's history, as well as the largest gift Mr. Jacobson has made to any single institution.
Mayo's program will include new facilities on the Rochester and Phoenix campuses; the Rochester building will be named in Mr. Jacobson's honor.
January 17, 2011
First Hawaiian Bank, which began its Kokua Mai employee-giving program in 2007 to give back to the community, is pledging to donate $2.5 million to Hawaii nonprofits in 2011, raising its total contribution to charities to more than $5 million over a two-year period.
The state's largest bank and its 2,200 employees gave more than $2.5 million to more than 400 local charities in 2010, with employees and retirees raising more than $560,000 of that amount for 38 designated charities during its Kokua Mai fund drive in October.
January 4, 2011
In yet another sign of how the nation’s economic slump is causing struggles for many charities, big donations from individuals and their foundations fell for the second consecutive year. The 10 biggest gifts donated by Americans in 2010 totaled slightly more than $1.3-billion, compared with $2.7-billion in 2009 and $8-billion in 2008.
In addition, only six individuals announced gifts of $100-million or more in 2010, a minor decline from 2009, when seven donors gave gifts of $100-million or more, but a significant drop from 2008, when 15 philanthropists announced gifts of that size.
January 3, 2011
Because it costs more to raise philanthropic money during a recession, nonprofit hospitals and other institutions who are willing to invest in fundraising personnel and emphasize major gifts and planned giving in their well-rounded programs will weather the current fiscal crisis in America, according to a “State of Philanthropic Health Care Address” released by William C. McGinly, Ph.D., CAE, president and chief executive officer, Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP).
December 28, 2010
Just in time for Christmas, N.C. State University is getting the biggest gift in its 123-year history. Lonnie C. Poole Jr., who made a fortune in the garbage-hauling business, and his wife, Carol Johnson Poole, are giving the university $40 million. That single gift will swell NCSU's entire endowment by nearly 10 percent and instantly boost the profile of the university's young management college, which is getting most of the money.
December 22, 2010
Donors to The Salvation Army can double their donated dollars to the charity during this holiday season. The Salvation Army announced Tuesday that three anonymous donors have offered to match all donations up to $300,000 given to the charity's red kettles in the Chicago area through Friday. A fourth anonymous donor has offered to match gold coins found in the kettles up to 100 coins.
