Large gifts to charities abound
A number of significant gifts to charitable organizations and institutions have recently been completed. This trend in larger gifts is being set primarily by individual donors. The following list summarizes a number of these large gifts and the people who made them:
1. $80 million to the Salvation Army of San Diego–Given by Joan Kroc, wife of the late McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.
2. $25 million to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts–Given by Julian Robertson, Jr., a new board member of the Center and chairman and CEO of the multi-billion dollar Tiger Management Investment Fund.
3. $20 million to Duke University– Given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda French Gates.
4. $20 million to the University of Southern California’s School of Education– Given by teachers Barbara and Roger Rossier, who say they “worked hard and invested well.”
5. $18 million to the California Institute of Technology–Given by Eli Broad, chairman, president, and CEO of SunAmerica Corporation.
6. $14.4 million to Orange County, California, public schools–Given by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, earmarked for scientific research.
Sources: Philanthropy Journal Alert,
September 16 and 18, 1998,
and The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN,
September 24, 1998
The bigger they were, the harder they fell
When the stock market dropped this July, many of the richest Americans dropped, too–dropped off Forbes magazine’s list of the wealthiest 400 people in the U.S.
While Microsoft chief Bill Gates saw his fifth year at the top of the list (with $58.4 billion) and investment guru Warren Buffett made second place ($29.4 billion), many of the megarich who once shared the list with them were not there this year. Forbes said that although their list contains a record 189 billionaires, there would have been 29 more billionaires on the list had the stock market remained steady.
Those who didn’t make the list this year include Charles Wang, chairman of Computer Associates ($975 million), Roy Disney, Walt Disney vice chairman ($900 million), and David Filo ($840 million) and Jerry Yang ($830 million), co-founders of the Yahoo! Web site.
Source: The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN
