The Slate60

Slate 60: Donor Bios

The largest American charitable contributions of the year.

Slate 60 Introduction   |  Donor Bios   |  Interactive Feature   |    Searchable Database    

1. George Soros—$332 million to the Open Society Foundations and other grant makers that are primarily supported by his wealth.. Soros, 80, is chairman of Soros Fund Management, a New York firm that manages hedge funds, and is the founder of the Open Society Foundations, which includes the Open Society Institute—established in 1993 to support the development of democratic institutions throughout Central and Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet Union. In 2010 the Open Society Foundations gave an estimated $875 million to nonprofit groups. One of the largest grants was $100 million to Human Rights Watch, a New York group that investigates and publicizes human-rights abuses worldwide, to enable the organization to increase the number of its regional offices around the globe and to expand its research capabilities. Soros asked the human-rights organization in September to use the news of the Open Society Foundations grant to raise an additional $100 million from other donors, but he did not make that a requirement. In an interview with the Chronicle of Philanthropy in September, Soros said that his foundations awarded the grant as a way to endorse Human Rights Watch’s plans to expand its reach. He credits the organization with helping to form him as a philanthropist decades ago and said he hoped the grant would encourage philanthropists outside of Europe and North America to support human-rights efforts. “It’s going to be an uphill struggle because in many countries tax [laws] are not as favorable as in the U.S., and there isn’t a tradition and culture of giving to rather abstract causes,” said Soros. Open Society Foundations also awarded $11 million last year to the Performing Arts Recovery Initiative, a one-time grant program managed by the Fund for the City of New York, to help small New York arts groups that were hit hard by the financial crisis. Through the award, 79 arts groups will receive two-year grants ranging from $65,000 to $250,000 to pay for operating expenses.—Maria Di Mento

2. Michael R. Bloomberg—$279.2 million to arts, human services, public affairs, and other groups. Bloomberg, 68 and the mayor of New York City, founded Bloomberg LP, a financial-data and news-service company, in New York. He gave a total of $279.2 million to 970 nonprofit groups that support the arts, human services, public affairs, and other causes. Among the wide array of organizations he has supported: Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, in New York; the Center for Public Integrity, in Washington; El Museo del Barrio, in New York; Food Bank for New York City; Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, in New York; the Kennedy Krieger Institute, in Baltimore; Loaves and Fishes, in Charlotte, N.C.; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York; the Migration Policy Institute, in Washington; Metropolitan Opera Association, in New York; Natural Resources Defense Council, in New York; Points of Light Foundation, in Atlanta; Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville, N.Y.; Spina Bifida Association of America, in Washington; West Harlem Group Assistance, in New York; the Wounded Warrior Project’s Jacksonville, Fla., chapter; and numerous other groups in New York and elsewhere.

—Maria Di Mento

3. T. Denny Sanford—$162.5 million to Sanford Health Foundation, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and the Florida Hospital for Children. Sanford, 75, is chairman of United National Corporation, a banking business in Sioux Falls, S.D. He gave $100 million to the Sanford Health Foundation, in Sioux Falls, S.D., to establish a national institute focused on research into and treatment of breast cancer. Foundation officials plan to announce more information about the center, such as where it will be located, in August. In 2007 Sanford pledged $400 million to the foundation to establish pediatric clinics in the United States and abroad and to support pediatric health care and medical research. He paid off the pledge in 2009. In addition to his new gift to Sanford Health, he pledged $50 million to support research programs at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, which has locations in La Jolla, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; and Santa Barbara, Calif. The institute was named for Sanford last year after he pledged the gift. He had also given the institute $20 million in 2007. Sanford also pledged $10 million to the Florida Hospital for Children, in Orlando, for a new pediatric hospital and $2.5 million to Vision360, an evangelical Christian missionary organization also located in Orlando.

Maria Di Mento

4.Irwin M. and Joan K. Jacobs—$119.5 million to the University of California at San Diego Health System and Joan and Irwin Jacobs Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego. Irwin Jacobs, 77 and co-founder of Qualcomm, a wireless-communications company in San Diego, and his wife Joan, 78, pledged $75 million to the University of California at San Diego Health System, in La Jolla, to build a new medical center, which will be named for the couple. The Jacobses have paid $10 million toward the pledge and plan to pay the remainder in $10 million annual increments through 2015. They will then pay $12 million in 2016 and the last $3 million in 2017. The Jacobses stipulated in their agreement with the university that specific construction benchmarks, such as the completion of preliminary floor plans, steel framing, and other developments, must be met for the institution to receive each annual payment. In addition, the couple gave $39.1 million to their Joan and Irwin Jacobs Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, where Joan Jacobs serves as vice chairwoman of the organization’s board of directors. Through this fund, the Jacobses awarded several grants last year, including a $6 million grant to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in La Jolla, Calif., for a professorship in genomics and another in neuroscience as well as grants to the American Civil Liberties Union, in New York; KPBS San Diego, a public-broadcasting group; and other nonprofits. Irwin Jacobs serves as chairman of the board of trustees at the Salk Institute. The Jacobses also made many smaller gifts last year, including $5 million to the San Diego Symphony for its endowment; $320,000 to the Dunaway Foundation, a philanthropy the Jacobses recently established in San Diego; and a total of $70,694 to other groups. Joan Jacobs is chairwoman of the symphony foundation’s board of directors.

—Maria Di Mento

5.Eli and Edythe L. Broad—$118.3 million to the Broad Foundations. Eli Broad, 77 and founding chairman of KB Home Corporation, a home builder, and of SunAmerica, a financial-services company, and his wife, Edythe, 74, gave $118.3 million to the Broad Foundations in Los Angeles. The foundations support civic programs, contemporary art museums, efforts to improve elementary and secondary public-school education, and medical and scientific research. Last year, the Broad Foundations awarded several grants, primarily to education groups. The foundations gave $10 million to the D.C. Public Education Fund, in Washington, to support public schools there and a $2.2 million grant to the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard. The foundations also gave $2 million for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, an annual prize established in 2002 and awarded to metropolitan school districts that have succeeded in improving student performance and graduation rates among low-income and minority students. In addition, the Broad Foundations awarded $2 million to the Inner City Education Foundation, a charter-schools organization in Los Angeles, for operations costs; $1.5 million to New Leaders for New Schools, a New York group that trains public-school principals; a $1 million grant to Achievement First, a charter-school management organization in New Haven, Conn., and Brooklyn, N.Y., to open new schools in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island; and $1 million to Rocketship Education, a charter-schools organization in San Jose, Calif., to expand the group’s “hybrid school” model, a program that combines classroom instruction with online learning for students in kindergarten through the fifth grade.

—Maria Di Mento

6. Leonard Blavatnik—$117.2 million to the University of Oxford. Blavatnik, 53, founded Access Industries, an international corporation with holdings in chemicals and natural resources, media and telecommunications, and real estate. He pledged about $117.2 million to the University of Oxford, in England, to establish the Blavatnik School of Government. The money will go toward constructing a building for the new school and will support 40 professorships. A portion of the gift will endow operating costs for the school. He was born and raised in Russia, came with his family to the United States in 1978, and became a U.S. citizen in 1984. Blavatnik did not attend Oxford but received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Moscow State University, in Russia, in 1978 and a master’s degree in computer science from Columbia University in 1981. He then went on to earn a master’s in business administration from Harvard in 1989. Blavatnik wanted to donate money to a graduate school of government that would focus on improving government and public-policy practices globally but found that most such schools were in the United States. Blavatnik then learned of Oxford’s desire, dating back to the 1920s, to establish such a school and decided the university was the best place to direct his donation. “Oxford has a global reputation, based on a centuries-old tradition of public service and excellence in public policy,” said Blavatnik in a written statement. “Students will learn how to promote good government in both the public and private sectors, and the school will promote the exchange of new ideas while endowing its students with a fresh sense of purpose.” Blavatnik serves on the boards of Tel Aviv University, in Israel, and the University of Cambridge. He also serves on Harvard University’s Committee on University Resources. In addition, he serves on the boards of several New York institutions, including the Center for Jewish History, the New York Academy of Sciences, the 92nd Street Y, and the White Nights Foundation of America, a group that raises money to support several Russian arts groups. He is also a trustee of the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg, Russia. No details were available about Blavatnik’s schedule for paying the pledge to Oxford.

—Maria Di Mento

7. Frances Lasker Brody—Approximately $110 million to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Brody, who was 93 when she died in November 2009, inherited wealth from her father, Albert Lasker, widely considered to be a pioneer of modern advertising, and her husband, Sidney Brody, a real-estate magnate who built shopping centers. Her bequest came from the proceeds of the sale of her art collection, which included significant works by Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso (including Picasso’s landmark Nude, Green Leaves and Bust); her midcentury modern home in Los Angeles, which was designed by A. Quincy Jones; and miscellaneous valuables. Brody didn’t become involved with the Huntington until she was in her 70s. She struck up a friendship with James Folsom, who directs the organization’s botanical gardens. About nine years ago, she told Steven Koblik, president of the Huntington, that she was planning to sell her art collection. Koblik recalls with laughter that she read his mind and immediately quashed his hopes by bluntly stating, “You’re not getting the art.” Before that art collection was sold, in May, the organization learned it was the sole beneficiary of her estate after her heirs received their inheritances, but Huntington officials had no idea how much money that would be. In October the Huntington received $15 million for its gardens as stipulated by Brody in her trust. And in November the institution received $80 million to finance its operations over time. The sale of her house yielded another $14.1 million for the Huntington. According to the executor of her will, Robert Shuwarger, Brody hoped that her gifts would provide financial stability for the organization. She carved her own reputation based on her formidable intellect and forceful personality. Never shy about expressing her opinions, Brody commissioned a ceramic mural in 1953 from Henri Matisse, and when the artist sent her a sketch, she told him he had to try again.

—Caroline Bermudez

8. T. Boone Pickens—$101 million to Oklahoma State University. Pickens, 82, founded Mesa Petroleum, an oil company, and BP Capital, an energy-investment firm, both in Dallas. He pledged $100 million to Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, to endow scholarships that will be awarded based on academic merit and to provide financial aid for students who otherwise could not afford to attend. The institution will receive the money upon Pickens’ death. A 1951 graduate of the university, Pickens has made numerous other donations to Oklahoma State. Counting this pledge, he has committed close to $500 million to the institution over his lifetime. In addition to his pledge to Oklahoma State in 2010, Pickens gave a total of $1,046,512 to 30 human service, medical, public affairs, and other groups throughout the country.

9. Meyer and Renee Luskin—$100.5 million tothe University of California at Los Angeles. Meyer Luskin, 85 and chairman of Scope Industries, and his wife, Renee, 78, pledged $100 million to the University of California at Los Angeles. Of the total, $50 million will endow the university’s School of Public Affairs; $40 million will help pay for a new building to house a conference center, guest quarters, and a faculty club; and $10 million will endow a speakers series. Both the public-affairs school and the new building will be named for the Luskins. The couple has paid $22 million toward the pledge and plan to pay off the rest over the next few years. They also gave $500,000 in 2010 to the university’s David Geffen School of Medicine. The Luskins are UCLA alumni and met while they were students there. Both earned bachelor’s degrees at the institution: Meyer Luskin earned his in economics in 1949, and Renee Luskin earned hers in sociology in 1953. They gave the university $5 million in 1998 to establish the Luskin Center for Innovation, which is housed in the School of Public Affairs. Meyer Luskin serves on the university foundation’s board of directors.

—Maria Di Mento

10. Marc R. and Lynne Benioff—$100 million to the University of California at San Francisco Children’s Hospital. Marc Benioff, 46 and founder of Salesforce.com, and his wife, Lynne, pledged $100 million to the University of California at San Francisco Children’s Hospital for a new building, to be named for the couple. The Benioffs have paid $50 million toward their pledge and plan to pay the remaining $50 million over the next five years. Marc Benioff wrote in a statement that while the couple has been donating anonymously to a variety of causes, they decided in 2010 to focus all of their giving in the coming years on the children’s hospital:”This is where we believe our time and resources will make the most impact in the next decade and beyond.” He also noted the couple’s goal is to make the new medical institution the most advanced children’s hospital in the world. He said they decided to attach their name to this gift to encourage other entrepreneurs to donate large amounts to causes important to them. The Benioffs’ daughter was born at the hospital, and Lynne Benioff serves on the hospital foundation’s board.

— Maria Di Mento

10. Mark Zuckerberg—$100 million to Startup: Education. Zuckerberg, 26 and co-founder of Facebook, has pledged $100 million worth of Facebook stock to establish his foundation, Startup: Education. He plans to make the donation over five years. The foundation will support programs that are working to improve public schools in Newark, N.J. Details about how much of the pledge Zuckerberg put into the foundation in 2010 were not available. The commitment is significant because it is the largest known donation by an American of Zuckerberg’s generation. Furthermore, Zuckerberg has no personal connection to Newark or to New Jersey. He grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and mostly attended private schools before attending Harvard and then, famously, dropping out to start Facebook. Yet witnessing his girlfriend Priscilla Chan’s experiences as a teacher working in public schools under the Teach for America program, Zuckerberg started thinking about the country’s public-education system. He then spent about a year studying education issues. Then last July, he met Cory Booker, Newark’s mayor at a conference and the two got to talking about Booker’s success at slashing the city’s crime rate and the 41-year-old mayor’s desire to improve Newark’s school system. Inspired, Zuckerberg says he recalls thinking, “This is the guy I want to invest in. This is a real person who can create this change.”

—Maria Di Mento

12. Terrence M. and Kim Pegula—$88 million to Penn State University. Terrence M. Pegula founded East Resources, an oil and gas exploration and development company, in Warrendale, Pa. He then sold it to Royal Dutch Shell in 2010 for $4.7 billion. The Pegulas together founded the Black River Music Group, in Nashville, and the Ayrault Sports Agency, in Charlotte, N.C. They pledged $88 million to Pennsylvania State University in State College, P.A., to build a new athletics arena, to support the university’s men’s and women’s hockey programs, and to provide scholarships to hockey players who attend the university. Terrence Pegula, 59, earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum and natural-gas engineering from the university in 1973. Although he did not play hockey when he attended Penn State, he and his wife are lifelong hockey fans, and he and his family often attend the university’s games, said Joe Battista, the university’s associate athletic director for ice-arena operations. Battista, who had met Terrence Pegula many years ago but didn’t know him well, said the gift came about when, in the fall of 2005, Pegula called Battista (then a coach for the men’s hockey team) at his unlisted home number and asked him why Penn State didn’t have varsity hockey. Battista offered to meet with him to discuss the university’s then-nonvarsity hockey programs. Over dinner, Battista told Pegula that it came down to money: The university could not afford to operate a top-level, varsity hockey program and probably never would. Pegula evidently disagreed. “He said ‘Joe, I think I can help you get to the next level,’ ” recalls Battista, who privately assumed Pegula had no idea how much money it was going to take.  Over the next couple of years, Pegula began meeting with university officials to discuss how much he could donate to create a varsity hockey program. By 2008 he was preparing to sell East Resources and make the gift. Then the markets tumbled, and the financial crisis delayed the sale of his company and donation. When the markets rebounded and the financial climate improved last year, Pegula resumed his plans to sell the company, which he did in May. In August, he revisited his talks with Penn State officials, and Pegula, Battista, and other university officials then toured the hockey facilities of the University of Notre Dame, the University of Minnesota, and other institutions. In August, Battista received a text message from Pegula, who wanted the former coach to know that he had signed a pledge agreement to give the university $88 million over the next five years. The commitment from the Pegulas is the largest donation the university has received to date. The donation will be paid out in cash over the next five years.

—Maria Di Mento

13. Juanita Kious Waugh—$83.7 million to the Mayo Clinic and Saint Joseph’s College, in Rensselaer, Ind. Waugh, who was 87 when she died in February 2010, managed her family’s farms and inherited some of her wealth from the family’s banking, brick, and cattle businesses. She bequeathed about $43.5 million in cash to the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn., for education programs and building projects. She also left 7,634 acres of farmland valued “at nearly $40.2 million to Saint Joseph’s College. Although not closely involved with the Mayo Clinic, Waugh and her mother had been patients there over the years. Her involvement with Saint Joseph’s College, however, came from her decades-long friendship with the Catholic college’s former leader, the Rev. Charles Banet, who was president from 1965 to 1993. Though outspokenly nonreligious, Waugh met Father Banet at a dinner party and the two became fast friends, often engaging each other in debates about religion. Her bequest to Saint Joseph’s has its roots in that friendship and in her commitment to protecting her family’s farms, ownership of which dates to the late 1800s. After Waugh’s father, Lloyd Waugh, died in 1949, the farms were managed for two years by others, but Waugh and her mother, Laura Blanche Kious Waugh, were unhappy with the way the farms were being run, so the two women took over their management. Together, they operated the farms until 1982, when Waugh’s mother died and Juanita became the sole manager. Fiercely proud of her family’s successful farming business, Waugh knew she wanted to keep the land working even after her death. Although she had given the college small gifts in the 1970s and ‘80s totaling only about $3,600, Waugh stopped donating around 1983. Until Father Banet died about 10 years ago, though, he kept her informed about the college, and in 2009 she contacted Saint Joseph’s officials as she was preparing her will. Through her friendship with Father Banet, she had learned of the college’s agrarian history (the institution’s priests and monks had worked its land, which helped support the college in its early days). During her 2009 meetings with college officials, she learned that Saint Joseph’s owned almost 1,000 acres of land but used only a small portion of it for the college’s purposes and rented the rest to tenant farmers. Impressed by the college’s continuing commitment to agriculture, she finalized her intentions to leave all 7,634 acres of working farmland to the college. Waugh, a savvy businesswoman according to those who knew her, worried that the church might one day overturn any agreement she had with the college and sell her land if it needed cash. To guarantee the protection of the farms from development or sale, she stipulated in her will and written agreements with the college that neither the college nor the church could sell the farmland, going so far as to stipulate in the transfer deed that the land could be used only for farming and wind-energy production and never sold. The deed also requires the college to establish a conservation easement that will be held and monitored by an outside entity. Earnings from the farms—which produce 600,000 bushels of corn and 200,000 bushels of soybeans annually and contain energy-producing wind turbines—will support scholarships for students at Saint Joseph’s. College officials say the institution will receive about $1.5 million a year. In addition to her two large bequests, Ms. Waugh left $10,000 to Brookston Federated Church and another $10,000 to Otterbein Methodist Church, both in Indiana. Although she held steady to her beliefs about religion throughout her life, she came to know the two churches through friends who attended them. Waugh also left $5,000 to the Doris Day Animal League in Washington.—Maria Di Mento

14. David R. and Patricia D. Atkinson—$80 million to Cornell University. David Atkinson, 72, a former partner with Miller, Anderson & Sherrerd, a Philadelphia money-management firm, now runs Atkinson & Company, the couple’s private-investment business. He and his wife, Patricia, pledged $80 million to Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., to support the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, a research center focused on the challenges facing energy, the environment, and economic development around the world. The couple established the center as a pilot program in 2007 with a $3 million donation. Their recent pledge endows the center’s research programs and will enable the center to hire new faculty members as well as to support the center’s general operations and other programs. No details were available about a timeline for paying the pledge. David Atkinson earned a bachelor’s degree in 1960 from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He grew up near New Egypt, N.J., on a poultry farm that his father, who had only a ninth-grade education, ran successfully. The donor said he believes a “productive, efficient agricultural sector is a key ingredient for economic development.”

—Maria Di Mento

15. Henry C. Woods Jr. and Jane C. Woods—$67 million to Lawrenceville School and North Shore Country Day School.Donors’ background: Henry Woods taught English literature and was an heir to the Sahara Coal Company fortune. The Chicago company is now an investment-holdings firm. Woods, who was 84 when he died in 2005, and his wife, Jane, who was 87 when she died in 2007, left $58.5 million to the Lawrenceville School, a private high school in New Jersey. The couple placed no restrictions on the gift. School officials say they plan to use the money primarily for financial aid and faculty salaries. Henry Woods graduated from the school in 1940 and returned in 1952 to teach English. He was chairman of the school’s English department from 1978 to 1986, the year he retired. He served on Lawrenceville’s board of trustees from 1989 to 1995. In addition, the couple bequeathed $8.5 million to the North Shore Country Day School, a private school in Winnetka, Ill. Jane Woods graduated from the school in 1937. The Woods family has a long history of philanthropy. Henry’s grandparents, Frank H. Woods Sr. and Nelle Cochrane Woods, founded the Woods Charitable Fund, a private family foundation in Lincoln, Neb., in 1941. Henry’s father, Frank Woods Jr. of Chicago, and Henry’s Uncle, Thomas Woods of Lincoln, later led the foundation through the 1970s and 1980s, and Henry’s father was instrumental in the development of the Council on Foundations. When Frank Jr. and Thomas died in 1980 and 1989, respectively, the foundation went through a period of change and was later split into two organizations, the Woods Charitable Fund and the Woods Fund of Chicago.

—Caroline Bermudez

16. Pierre and Pam Omidyar—$61.5 million to HopeLab, Humanity United, Omidyar Network, and the Ulupono Initiative. Pierre Omidyar founded eBay, and Pam. Omidyar is chairwoman of HopeLab, a nonprofit in Redwood City, Calif., that develops technology to help chronically ill children. The Omidyars, both 43, gave a total of slightly more than $61.5 million to four organizations: HopeLab; Humanity United, a Redwood City group that supports efforts to fight slavery and mass atrocities around the globe; the nonprofit arm of the Omidyar Network, also in Redwood City, which supports a variety of charities; and the nonprofit branch of the Ulupono Initiative, a Honolulu organization that supports groups focused on the environment, local agriculture, and sustainable energy.

—Maria Di Mento

17. William A. and Karen Ackman—$59.3 million to the Pershing Square Foundation. William Ackman, 44, founded Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund in New York. Karen Ackman is a landscape architect. They gave $58 million to the Pershing Square Foundation in 2010, which they created in 2006 to support education, human rights, social entrepreneurship, and other causes. They contributed an additional $1.3 million to 50 other nonprofits. In September, the Pershing Square Foundation announced its largest pledge to date: $25 million to help improve the public-school system in Newark, N.J. Ackman has known the city’s mayor, Cory Booker, for years and has supported other city-improvement efforts, such as cleaning up its parks. When Booker was seeking additional donors to match a $100 million pledge that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg was making to Newark’s school system, the Ackmans’ foundation came forward with the biggest commitment yet next to Zuckerberg’s. Also last year, the foundation pledged $5 million to the One Acre Fund, which fights hunger by helping African farmers grow and sell more crops. Other grantees include Echoing Green Foundation in New York, Digital Divide Data in New York, and the Global Health Delivery Project (an effort by Harvard University, Partners in Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital to improve how global-health projects are run). Along with his role as a trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation, William Ackman serves on the boards of Boys and Girls Harbor, the Center for Jewish History, and Park Avenue Armory, all of which are in New York. Karen Ackman is a board member of the couple’s foundation and two other New York nonprofits: Human Rights Watch and Friends of the High Line.

—Caroline Preston

18. Charles E. Kaufman—$53.3 million to the Pittsburgh Foundation. Kaufman, who died in September at age 97, was an investor and retired director of purchasing for the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. He bequeathed an estimated $50 million to the Pittsburgh Foundation. Most of the gift, between $35 million and $40 million, will go to a fund he established at the foundation in 2005, the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation. The fund supports research in biology, chemistry, and physics and supports awards “for achievement in and contribution to the field and humanity,” according to its mission statement. It was created with $1.5 million from Mr. Kaufman and has since given three awards of $50,000 each to researchers. The remainder of the bequest will go to a donor-advised fund Kaufman established in 1984 with his late sister, Virginia, that supports causes in Jewish health care, land conservation, programs for older adults, and public education. He made his fortune late in life and said he wanted to earn enough to give a lot away. According to his lawyer and the executor of his estate, Wendy Denton Heleen, he made savvy investments in the stock market and several drug and science enterprises after he retired from his position at Merck. Additionally, Kaufman left $3.34 million to 25 charities across the nation, including organizations that focus on the environment, Jewish life and culture, social services, and higher education. They include $1 million to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, in Pittsburgh; $300,000 to Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Pittsburgh; $50,000 to the International Rescue Committee in New York; $50,000 to the Jewish National Fund in New York; $50,000 to Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Irving, Texas; and $30,000 to American Forests in Washington. At age 92, Kaufman learned how to use a computer. While online, he came across the Welch Foundation, a grant maker in Houston that supports chemical research at educational institutions in Texas. Drawing inspiration from the foundation, Kaufman called Heleen to formulate his philanthropic plans. Heleen says he often talked about being a child of the Depression. Modest in both his temperament and way of life, few people knew of Kaufman’s wealth. Only in his later years did the Pittsburgh Foundation have an inkling as to the amount of money it was going to receive from him. A lifelong bachelor with no children, Kaufman lived for most of his life in the South Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh, much of the time with his sister. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati in 1936 and a master’s degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon in 1942. While in graduate school, he worked as a chemical engineer at the Hagan Corporation, in Pittsburgh, which eventually became the Calgon Corporation and, later, Merck. Indeed, it was his education and career that guided his investment strategies, which involved putting money into companies at the forefront of cutting-edge scientific research. Heleen says Kaufman greatly hoped that his research fund would help someone win a Nobel Prize and would speak of that desire with a tear in his eye. In 2008, when he presented the first $50,000 award to a Carnegie Mellon professor for work in green chemistry, Kaufman said, “I can accomplish more through others than I ever could myself.”

—Caroline Bermudez

19. Edward P. (Ned) Evans: $50 million to Yale University. Evans, who died Dec. 31, 2010, at the age of 68, was a private investor and breeder of thoroughbred horses and chairman of Macmillan, a New York publishing company, from 1979 to 1989. He gave $50 million to Yale University, in New Haven, Conn., several weeks before his death. The money will be used for a new building in the university’s School of Management, which Yale plans to name for Evans. He graduated from the university in 1964.

—Maria Di Mento

19. Ming Hsieh—$50 million to the University of Southern California. Hsieh, 55, founded AMAX Information Technologies, a computer server and storage systems company, in Fremont, Calif.; and Cogent, a Pasadena, Calif., company that develops automated fingerprint-identification systems. He pledged $50 million to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles to establish and endow a new institute for research into the field of nanomedicine to help develop new drugs and other types of therapy to treat cancer. He has paid $10 million toward the pledge and plans to pay the remainder in the coming years. Originally from Sheyang, China, Hsieh immigrated to the United States when he was 24. He said he made the gift to show his appreciation for the opportunities in the United States and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his arrival in the country. Hsieh graduated from the university in 1983 with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and a master of science in the same discipline in 1984. He serves on the university’s board of trustees and in 2006 donated $35 million to the institution.—Maria Di Mento

19. Paul Ichiro Terasaki: $50 million to the University of California at Los Angeles

Donor’s background: Terasaki, 82, is a retired professor of surgery at University of California at Los Angeles who co-founded One Lambda, a Canoga Park, Calif., company that creates and markets human-tissue-type tests that are used in organ transplants. He pledged $50 million to the University of California at Los Angeles. Terasaki has directed that $48 million go toward a new life-sciences building, which will be named for him, and the remaining $2 million will endow a professorship in surgery in the David Geffen School of Medicine. A payment schedule was not available.

Terasaki earned three degrees from the university: a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950, a Master of Arts in 1952, and a Ph.D. in 1956.

Born in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, Terasaki was 12 when his family, like many Japanese-Americans in the 1940s, was forced by the federal government to live in an internment camp during World War II. After the war ended, the family moved from the Gila River camp in Arizona, to Chicago, but eventually they returned to Southern California in 1948.

Although not a surgeon, Terasaki worked as a professor of surgery at the university from 1969 to 1999. Through his research there he developed, in 1964, a test for tissue typing that analyzes the compatibility of organ donors and recipients. The test became the standard method used throughout the world for matching transplant donors and recipients.

In 2006, Terasaki gave the university $5 million for a program promoting a better understanding between Japan and the United States.

—Maria Di Mento

19. P. Roy and Diana T. Vagelos—$50 million to the Columbia University Medical Center. Roy Vagelos, 81, is a retired chairman of the Merck & Company pharmaceuticals corporation, in Whitehouse Station, N.J., and is currently chairman of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, in Tarrytown, N.Y. Vagelos and his wife, Diana, 76, gave $50 million to Columbia University Medical Center, in New York, for a new building. He earned his medical degree from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1954. Vagelos serves as chairman of Columbia University Medical Center’s board of visitors. Diana Vagelos serves on Barnard College’s board of trustees, in New York, and on the board of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, in Newark. The couple said the techniques taught in graduate and medical schools have changed greatly over the past decade, and they hope their gift helps provide students with the most advanced technology available. The couple, who met while he was a medical student at the university and she was a student at Barnard (which was then part of Columbia’s system), also said they hope the new building provides “some social space for students to interact, study, and just enjoy their experience.”

—Maria Di Mento

23. Bennett S. LeBow—$49 million to Drexel University. LeBow, 73, founded BSL Capital, a private investment company in New York. He is also chairman of the Borders Group, a bookstore company with headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich.; and chairman of the Vector Group, a private-equity firm, in Miami, which is focused on real-estate and tobacco holdings. He pledged $45 million to Drexel University, in Philadelphia, for a new building in the LeBow College of Business. He has paid about $15 million of the pledge and plans to pay the remainder over the next 15 years. The business college was named for him in 1999, when he gave the university $10 million. He graduated from Drexel in 1960 with bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. LeBow also donated a total of $4 million last year to several groups that support cancer research.

—Maria Di Mento

24. Lawrence J. Ellison—$45.1 million to the Ellison Medical Foundation. Ellison, 66, founded Oracle Corporation. He gave $45.1 million to his Ellison Medical Foundation, in Bethesda, Md., for biomedical research. He started the foundation in 1997 to award grants to researchers and organizations studying the aging process, age-related disabilities and diseases, stem-cell research, and many other scientific fields of study that might not be supported by other resources. Last year the foundation gave out more than $38.9 million in grants.

—Maria Di Mento

25. Lee G. and Jane H. Seidman—$42 million to University Hospitals. Lee Seidman, 79, is the retired founder of the Motorcars Group, a chain of automobile dealerships in Cleveland. He and his wife, Jane, 70, pledged $42 million to University Hospitals in Cleveland for its cancer center, which the organization has named the University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center. The Seidmans’ connection to University Hospitals goes back to their infancies; they were both born there. The gift also continues a change in their philosophy of giving that they made several years ago. In previous years, said Lee Seidman, the couple rarely declined requests for charitable donations, making small gifts to many types of charities. But after he retired in 2000, the couple started devoting more time to their philanthropy. In 2005 they began taking courses through the Wealth and Giving Forum, a New York group, which advises wealthy philanthropists, and over time they came to believe they could make a greater difference if they concentrated their giving in larger amounts and in one or two geographic areas or on one or two nonprofits. To that end, they chose to focus the bulk of their giving in Cleveland, where they grew up, and designated University Hospitals and the Cleveland Clinic as the beneficiaries of the bulk of their philanthropy. They pledged $17 million to the Cleveland Clinic in 2007 and another $6 million in 2009. They paid $12 million toward their pledge in 2010. The couple did not place any restrictions on the gift as long as it is directed toward the cancer center.

—Maria Di Mento

26. Violet L. Patton: $41.3 million to Ohio University. Patton, a retired assistant professor of art education at Miami University of Ohio, in Oxford, invested in stock in American Home Products, which later became the pharmaceuticals giant Wyeth. She pledged two gifts totaling $41.3 million to Ohio University, in Athens, last year. She pledged $28 million for the Patton College of Education and Human Services and directed the university to use the money for building renovations and programs for students and faculty. She also pledged $13.3 million for the College of Fine Arts to establish a new arts-education center, which the university has named the Violet L. Patton Center for Arts Education. The center will develop programs to improve arts education in the area’s local public schools and to increase the number of local children who graduate from colleges and universities. Payment schedules are not available for either gift commitment. Patton graduated from Ohio University in 1938 with a bachelor’s degree in education and went on to teach art in mostly small, impoverished elementary schools, eventually developing and writing an arts-education curriculum that was widely used throughout Ohio. While teaching at a school in Wapakoneta, Ohio, she taught a young student named Neil Armstrong, who would later become the first man to walk on the moon. Patton also wrote textbooks and collaborated with her mother, Gladys Patton, to write a series of etiquette books for children called Little Dot Learns. In 1945 she joined the faculty of Miami University of Ohio, where she taught for the rest of her career.

—Maria Di Mento

27. Lonnie C. Poole Jr. and Carol Johnson Poole—$40.2 million to North Carolina State University. Lonnie Poole founded Waste Industries USA, a waste-collection and disposal company in Raleigh, N.C., in 1970. The Pooles have pledged $40 million to North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, with the majority of the money—$37 million—earmarked for the College of Management, which will be named in Lonnie Poole’s honor. The gift will support the development of new programs, faculty research, student scholarships and fellowships, and other college activities. Of the rest of the gift, $2.5 million will go to the Carol Johnson Poole Club House on the Lonnie Poole Golf Course, to which the couple donated $3 million in 2007, and $500,000 will go for an endowed fund in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Lonnie Poole earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the institution in 1959 and is vice chairman of the board of directors at the university’s foundation and a member of the university’s endowment board. Through his board roles, Poole became increasingly aware that the College of Management, established in 1992, faced trouble attracting financial support. And he knew that government support was likely to dwindle given how much the bad economy had eroded state and federal budgets. The gift is the largest ever received by the university, say the institution’s officials. Thus far, the couple has provided $11 million of the pledge, with the rest to be paid over 10 years. The Pooles have also given $75,000 to the WakeMed Foundation—the fund-raising arm of WakeMed Health & Hospitals—for a wing at its children’s hospital in Raleigh; $51,000 to the Boy Scouts of America, in Irving, Texas; and $25,000 to St. David’s School, in Raleigh. Poole is a member of the Southern Region Board of the Boy Scouts of America and serves on the executive council for both the organization’s Occoneechee Council and Central Florida Council.

—Caroline Bermudez

28. Lin Arison—$39 million to the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Arison, an author and film producer, is the widow of Ted Arison, the founder of Carnival Cruise Lines, He died in 1999. Lin Arison gave about $39 million to the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, a Miami organization she and her late husband founded in 1981 to identify young, emerging artists and help them at critical points in their careers. She currently serves on its board. Arison has designated that the money be used to establish an endowment for the foundation’s YoungArts program. Earnings from the endowment will go toward new arts-education programs for high-school students and teachers. Arison said she was concerned that schools were cutting their arts programs. “Unfortunately, when they’re tightening budgets, they see the arts as frivolous,” she said. “We have to put arts back into the school system.” The money came from proceeds of the sale of two paintings that Arison put up for auction last year. Le Bassin aux Nymphéas by Claude Monet, sold for $22 million; Jeanne Hébuterne (au Chapeau) by Amedeo Modigliani sold for $17 million. Arison is the author of Travels With Van Gogh and the Impressionists: Discovering the Connections, a personal memoir and travelogue in which she also explored the history of the impressionists.—Maria Di Mento

29. Herman Ostrow—$35 million to the University of Southern California. Ostrow, 93, is a retired dentist and founded the Ostrow Property Management, a real-estate-development company in Los Angeles. He gave the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, $35 million to endow its School of Dentistry. He earned his dental degree from the university in 1945 and went on to practice dentistry for 17 years before starting his real-estate business. The university has named the school for him.

—Maria Di Mento

30. Jon L. Stryker—$32.8 million to the Arcus Foundation. Stryker, 52, is an architect and heir to the Stryker Corporation fortune. The medical-products company was founded by his grandfather, Homer Stryker, a surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed. He gave $30.8 million to the Arcus Foundation, which has offices in Kalamazoo, Mich., and New York. The money will go toward the foundation’s two grant-making priorities: ensuring the survival of great apes and their habitats and combating discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Stryker established the foundation in 2000 and serves as its president. Last year the foundation awarded 138 grants totaling more than $16 million to social-justice groups. In addition, Stryker donated nearly $2 million to the Arcus Operating Foundation, which finances Arcus’ administrative work. Last October Stryker was honored for his efforts on behalf of primate conservation when scientists named a newly discovered species of monkey after him, the Rhinopithecus strykeri. The foundation has given more than $30 million to primate conservation.

—Maria Di Mento

31. Paul G. Allen—$32.3 million to Washington State University. Allen, 58, founded Vulcan, an investment company in Seattle, and helped establish Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash. He pledged $26 million to Washington State University, in Pullman, for a variety of programs and building projects in its School for Global Animal Health, which is focused on the study of infections that are transmitted from animals to humans. The university plans to use some of the money to hire more research scientists for the global animal-health school over the next 10 years and establish research programs in Africa, with a goal of improving the ability of African countries to respond to animal-borne diseases. He paid $6.7 million toward the pledge in 2010. Allen also gave a total of $6.3 million to several nonprofit groups, including the Experience Music Project, a museum he established in 2000 that is dedicated to rock music; the Science Fiction Museum, which he started in 2003; and the Allen Institute for Brain Science, all of which are in Seattle, as well as the Flying Heritage Collection, an Everett, Wash., museum that primarily displays World War II-era combat aircraft.

—Maria Di Mento

32. Norton Herrick—$32 million to the University of Miami School of Communications. Herrick is chairman of the Herrick Co., a real-estate investment firm, and of Herrick Entertainment, a film and theatrical production company, both in Boca Raton, Fla. He gave a collection of about 3,000 rare films, animated features, and classic early television shows valued at about $32 million to the University of Miami School of Communications, in Coral Gables, Fla. The value of the gift includes an undisclosed cash amount, which the university will use to digitize, maintain, and store the collection.

—Maria Di Mento

33. Edward H. and Vivian Merrin—$30.2 million to Tufts University. Edward Merrin, an expert in pre-Colombian art and ancient antiquities, founded the Merrin Gallery, in New York, which specializes in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities. He is also a private investor. Merrin, 82, and his wife, Vivian, 79, pledged $30 million to Tufts University, in Medford, Mass., to establish a new scholarship fund. The university will receive the donation upon the donors’ deaths. Edward Merrin graduated from Tufts in 1959 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and served on the university’s board of trustees from 1980 to 1991. The couple’s three sons, Edwards Merrin’s brother, and one of his cousins also graduated from the university. The couple said they pledged the donation last year to commemorate Edward Merrin’s 60th class reunion. Merrin said he also felt the time was right because the Tufts president, Lawrence S. Bacow, is stepping down this year. The couple was inspired by Bacow to make financial aid a philanthropic priority. “Because this is a recession year, we thought we should step up and make a major gift and try to induce other people [of means] that now is the most important time to do so,” said Merrin. The philanthropist said he and his wife originally planned to make their gift anonymously, but university officials persuaded them to attach their name to the gift as a way to encourage other donors to give. “The publicity is not something we enjoy,” said Merrin, who first learned about philanthropy as a child, when each week he took one penny out of his 5 cent allowance and deposited it in the family’s “pushka,” a Yiddish term for a box kept in the home for charitable donations. In addition to their large pledge, the Merrins gave the university three donations last year, including $100,000 for Tufts Hillel, $25,000 for the university’s art gallery, and a $50,000 pledge for the previously established Merrin Term Scholarship. In 2005, the Merrins gave the university $3 million to endow a professorship in the humanities. Edward Merrin serves on the boards of the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, the American Joint Distribution Committee, and Lincoln Center Theater, all in New York. Vivian Merrin also serves on the board of the distribution committee.

—Maria Di Mento

34. William P. and Lou W. Kennedy—$30.1 million to the University of South Carolina. William Kennedy, 66, has owned several pharmaceutical companies, including Rotech Medical Corp., which he sold in 1997 for about $1 billion. Lou Kennedy, 47, is president of Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp., an Orlando, Fla., company the couple owns. The Kennedys pledged $30 million, of which $1 million has been paid, to the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, for its College of Pharmacy. The money will establish the William P. and Lou W. Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center, which will focus on providing pharmacy students with a chance to learn business skills and provide researchers and faculty with updated labs and other programs. The Kennedys plan to pay $1 million a year over 10 years. The university will receive the remaining $20 million upon the donors’ deaths. William Kennedy said he and his wife made the gift as a way to improve health care. “There is room for pharmacists to do a lot more than what they’re doing in health care,” he said. “To do that, they have to be innovative and have a mind that is entrepreneurial to think about how they can apply their pharmacy education to the changes in the health-care environment.” In addition to their large pledge, the Kennedys gave the university a total of $75,500 for other campus programs. Both donors are alumni of the university.

—Maria Di Mento

35. Alvin S. and Terese Lane—$30 million to the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Alvin Lane, a former partner at Wien, Lane & Klein who was 89 when he died in 2007, and his wife, Terese, who was 88 when she died in 2010, bequeathed a collection of 340 artworks valued at about $30 million to the Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The collection includes sculptures and preparatory drawings by Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, and other 20th-century artists. Alvin Lane graduated from the university in 1940 with a bachelor’s degree in history. Russell Panczenko, the museum’s director, got to know the Lanes in the late 1980s when he traveled to New York to visit alumni in the area. A New Jersey native, Alvin Lane once told Panczenko that he decided to attend the University of Wisconsin when he was unable to attend some East Coast universities because of quotas for Jewish students. Over time a friendship developed, and in the following years Panczenko tried to persuade the Lanes that the Chazen would be the best fit for the couple’s collection. But Alvin Lane wasn’t completely convinced. By 1995, Panczenko had talked the Lanes into showing some of their collection at the museum. Pleased with the experience and impressed with the extensive amount of space their art was given, the couple decided to leave the bulk of their collection there. The Lanes also left a painting by Jasper Johns to the Currier Museum of Art, in Manchester, N.H., and another painting by Stuart Davis to the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, N.H. Officials at both of those museums declined to place a value on the paintings and said they have not received the works from the Lanes’ estate.

Maria Di Mento

35. John C. Malone—$30 million to Johns Hopkins University. Malone, 69, is chairman of Liberty Media Corp., a media and entertainment investment company, and Liberty Global, a cable and broadband Internet-service provider, both in Englewood, Colo. He gave $30 million to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to construct a 56,000-square-foot interdisciplinary research building for the Whiting School of Engineering. The building, which will be named for Malone, will gather engineers, life-science scholars, and medical researchers to figure out how to use information science to help screen people for diseases, diagnose them, and treat them. The effort will start with cancer patients and then expand into other diseases. The gift has already been paid. Malone earned a master’s degree in industrial management in 1964 and a doctoral degree in operations research in 1967, both from the university.

—Caroline Bermudez

35. Tamsen Ann Ziff—$30 million to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Ziff designs fine jewelry and founded Tamsen Z, an upscale jewelry boutique in New York. She is the widow of William B. Ziff Jr., the former head of Ziff Davis, a New York publishing company, who died in 2006. Ziff, 64, pledged $30 million to the Metropolitan Opera, in New York, where she is co-chairwoman of the board of directors. She placed no restrictions on how the gift can be used. Her connection to the opera company runs deep. Her mother, Harriet Henders, was an opera singer in the 1930s and ‘40s who made her U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1939 in Der Rosenkavalier, by Richard Strauss. The opera did not disclose a payment schedule for the pledge. Ziff also serves on the boards of the American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York Restoration Project, and the World Science Festival, all in New York, as well as Conservation International, in Arlington, Va., and Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, in Coral Gables, Fla.

—Maria Di Mento

38. Theodore and Vada Stanley—$29.1 million to the Stanley Family Foundation and Stanley Medical Research Institute. Theodore Stanley, 79, founded MBI, a Norwalk, Conn., company that develops and markets collectible items. He and his wife, Vada, 78, gave $17.1 million to their Stanley Family Foundation, in Norwalk, Conn., which they established in 1985. The foundation primarily supports mental-health services as well as education and the arts. The Stanleys also donated $6 million to the Stanley Medical Research Institute, in Chevy Chase, Md., to support research into and treatment of mental illness. They established the institute in 1989. The Stanleys also gave a total of $6 million to about 40 nonprofits last year, including $3 million to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in Cambridge, Mass., for its mental-illness research program; to the Carter Center, in Atlanta; the Manhattan Institute, in New York; and several human-services and youth organizations.

— Maria Di Mento

39. Stephen and Nancy Grand—$28.1 million to the American Technion Society. Stephen Grand, 67, is president and partner of Grand-Sakwa Properties, a developer of residential and retail properties in Farmington Hills, Mich. He and his wife, Nancy, 61, have pledged $20 million to the American Technion Society, the fundraising arm for the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel, for the university’s energy-studies courses and research. The donation will support research on alternative fuels, renewable energy, conservation, and storage. The pledge, of which $2 million has been paid, will be distributed over 10 years. Stephen Grand successfully fought multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells, and credits research conducted at Technion with helping him survive a disease that is often fatal. He has served on its national board of directors and is a member of the Technion’s International board of governors. The couple previously gave $10 million in 2001 to the university’s Water Research Institute, which was then named in their honor, and have supported a dormitory and research projects at the Technion. In addition to the $20 million gift, the Grands donated $100,000 to the American Technion Society to help the university finance research on the breakdown of proteins. Stephen Grand serves on the board of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, in Norwalk., Conn, and is a member of the executive committee at the Birthright Israel Foundation, in New York. In addition, the Grands donated a total of $8 million to the following groups: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, in Washington; the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, in Little Rock; the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation; the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (Nancy Grand is vice president of its board); and the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, where Nancy Grand will be inducted as president of the board in June.

—Caroline Bermudez

40. David M. Rubenstein—$26.6 million to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Chicago Law School, the Library of Congress, and the Foundation for the National Archives. Rubenstein, 61, is a co-founder and the managing director of the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm, in Washington. He pledged $10 million, of which $2 million has been paid, to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, where he serves as chairman of the board of trustees. Of the total, Rubenstein has earmarked $5 million to support the National Symphony Orchestra and to celebrate the tenure of Christoph Eschenbach, the orchestra’s new music director. The donor directed $2.5 million to support a significant production each year, to be called the Rubenstein Program; $1.5 million for an arts-education program for students in kindergarten through high school; and $200,000 for activities such as the Kennedy Center Honors, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and others. Rubenstein plans to pay the remainder of the pledge at an annual rate of $2 million over the next four years. In addition, Rubenstein pledged $10 million to the University of Chicago Law School for full-tuition scholarships. He has paid $500,000 toward the pledge and plans to pay the rest over the next five years. Rubenstein, who has served on the university’s board of trustees since 2007, earned a law degree at the university in 1973. A self-made billionaire, Rubenstein said he gave the donation because the law school gave him an opportunity that he would like others to have and because he wants to help the law school compete with peer institutions to attract the best students. Rubenstein also pledged $5 million, of which $1 million has been paid, to the Library of Congress, in Washington, to help support the library’s annual National Book Festival and for reading programs. The remainder of the pledge will be paid over the next four years at $1 million annually. He also gave $1 million to the Foundation for the National Archives, in Washington, to build a new display case for the Magna Carta, a 714-year-old English charter that is considered one of the most important legal documents in history. When H. Ross Perot put the Magna Carta document up for auction in 2007, Rubenstein jumped at the chance to buy it, wanting to ensure this copy—the only one in the United States—stayed in the country. He bought the document for $21.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction and has lent it indefinitely to the National Archives. In addition to those gifts, Rubenstein gave many smaller donations in 2010, including $350,000 to the Economic Club of Washington; $170,000 to the D.C. Public Education Fund, in Washington; and $128,000 to Junior Achievement of the National Capital Area.

—Maria Di Mento

41. Dyson Family—$25 million to Cornell University. The Dyson brothers—John S. Dyson, Peter L. Dyson, and Robert R. Dyson— pledged $25 million to Cornell University to establish a school of applied economics and management, which will be named for the Dysons’ father, Charles H. Dyson. John S. Dyson, a former deputy mayor of New York, founded Millbrook Capital Management, a New York investment firm that operates a hedge fund, a manufacturing company, and a winery. Peter L. Dyson is president of Dyson, Dyson and Dunn, a private-equity firm in Winnetka, Ill. Robert R. Dyson is chairman of the Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a holding company in New York. John S. Dyson graduated from Cornell in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics; and Robert R. Dyson earned a master’s degree in business administration at the university in 1974. A payment schedule was not available.

— Maria Di Mento

41. Mary E. McKinney—$25 million to the University of Texas at San Antonio. McKinney, who was 79 when she died in 2009, was a retired elementary schoolteacher who inherited securities and ranchland containing oil and gas rights from her parents. She left at least $25 million to the University of Texas at San Antonio for scholarships. She did not attend the university until late in life. She had earned a bachelor’s degree in 1950 from Trinity University, in San Antonio, and a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin in 1952. In the 1990s she decided to take some graduate-level courses at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Standing in line in 1991 to pay her tuition, she overheard a couple of students talking about their struggle to pay their tuition. Without saying a word, Ms. McKinney stepped out of the line and went upstairs to the university’s development office, where she wrote a check for $4,000 to donate for financial aid. She ended up donating a total of $250,000 to the university before this bequest, which represents the bulk of her estate.

— Maria Di Mento

42. Paul and Daisy M. Soros—$25 million to the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Paul Soros, 84, founded Soros Associates, a port-construction company, in Chicago, and Paul Soros Investments, in New York. Daisy Soros, 81, is a retired social worker. They gave $25 million to the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, in New York, to support higher education for immigrants and their children. The nonprofit, which they created in 1998, awards immigrants to the United States and their children two years of full tuition and help with expenses so they can pursue graduate study in any subject at any U.S. university. To date, the organization has supported more than 380 students. The couple came to the United States from Hungary in 1948 with only about $1,500, and while Paul Soros had been accepted to both Columbia and Harvard, he couldn’t afford the tuition at either institution. So he chose to enroll at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University, in Brooklyn, N.Y. As his wealth grew (in part from investments he made with his younger brother, the philanthropist and financier George Soros, who ranks No. 1 on the 2010 Slate 60), he and Daisy decided they would prefer to set up an organization that would help immigrants struggling with the cost of education, rather than finance any one university or graduate program. “I have always preferred investing directly in individuals and not putting my name on buildings,” said Paul Soros. Steep increases in university tuition prompted the couple to donate to the organization last year, said Soros, who added that he and his wife have been monitoring the cost of tuition at many graduate schools over the past several years and felt now was the right time to raise the amount available to those they assist. “Student indebtedness is a plague of our times,” said Paul Soros. “We want Soros Fellows to have as little debt as possible and hence more options for their futures.” Daisy Soros serves on the boards of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the New York Philharmonic, and Weill Cornell Medical College, all of which are in New York.

—Maria Di Mento

43. Jan T. and Marica F. Vilcek—$23.1 million to the New York University Langone Medical Center. Dr. Vilcek, 77, is a professor of microbiology at New York University School of Medicine and co-developed Remicade, an anti-inflammatory drug. Marica Vilcek,74, is a former associate curator and head of the accessions and catalog department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. They pledged $21 million to New York University Langone Medical Center. Of the total, $10 million will go toward a new residence hall for students, $10 million will endow full-tuition scholarships, and $1 million will be added to the Jan T. Vilcek Endowed Fellowship Fund, which the couple established five years ago. Dr. Vilcek said he hopes the donation will “enable talented young medical students and researchers to have the same opportunities that I did at NYU Langone.” He added that he and his wife hope to improve the competitiveness of the medical school and attract the best-qualified students. While they have an eye toward present and future students, the couple’s reasons for giving to the medical center are rooted in their past. They came to the United States 46 years ago as refugees from what was then communist Czechoslovakia with no money and few contacts. “We earned our small fortune not by speculating in the financial markets but by doing scientific research in a university setting,” said Dr. Vilcek. He said the medical center gave him the opportunity to be a part of its family, and it in turn became his intellectual home. He and his wife now want to make it possible for others to succeed. The Vilceks have paid $8.3 million toward the pledge and plan to pay the remainder over the next three years. The $21 million commitment is not the Vilceks’ first gift to the institution or even their largest. In 2005, the couple pledged $105 million to the medical school for education and research programs in the department of microbiology. The Vilceks last year gave $1 million to their Vilcek Foundation, in New York, which they established in 2000. The foundation awards grants and prizes with a focus on calling attention to the contributions of immigrants to science and the arts in the United States. The couple also gave $700,000 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a total of more than $390,000 to other nonprofits, including the Bellevue Literary Press, in New York, several scientific research funds at New York University, and other organizations.

—Maria Di Mento

45. David H. Koch—$23 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the House Ear Institute. Koch, 70, is executive vice president of Koch Industries, an oil and gas refinery in Wichita, Kan., that was founded by his father, Fred C. Koch. He pledged $10 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, to renovate the fountains and front plaza of the museum. He also serves on the museum’s board of directors. He also committed $8 million last year to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, to support two professorships, one in science and another in engineering, that will be connected to the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. The institute was established when Mr. Koch gave MIT $100 million in 2007 for the research center’s creation. A portion of that gift will also support a head basketball coach post. Koch earned a bachelor’s degree at MIT in 1962 and a master’s degree the following year. Payment schedules could not be determined for either the museum or the MIT pledge. In addition to those commitments, Koch pledged $5 million to the House Ear Institute, in Los Angeles, to create a center for hearing restoration that will be named for him. He paid $1 million toward the pledge in 2010 and plans to pay the remainder over the next four years.—Maria Di Mento

46. Bion R. Cram—$21.5 million to Fryeburg Academy and Bowdoin College. Cram, 93 when he died in 2008, was a retired stockbroker who had worked at Spencer Trask & Company and Shearson Loeb Rhoades, both in New York. He left about $11.5 million to the Fryeburg Academy, a private school in Maine. Cram stipulated that about one-half of the money be used to endow scholarships, and the other one-half should go to support resources such as books, laboratories, and upkeep for the library, which the academy had named for Cram in 2002 after he donated $500,000 for a new building. A scholarship student and 1933 graduate of the academy, Cram came to the school’s rescue in 2005 when, after a fire destroyed the institution’s gymnasium, he promptly donated $3 million to rebuild it. The donor also bequeathed $10 million to Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, for a professorship in economics and for scholarships. Cram graduated from Bowdoin in 1937 with a degree in economics.—Maria Di Mento

47. Harold C. and Annette C. Simmons—20.03 million to Baylor Health Care System Foundation. Harold Simmons, 79, is chairman of Titanium Metals Corporation and founded Contran, a holding company, in Dallas. He and his wife, Annette, 75, pledged $20 million to the Baylor Health Care System Foundation, in Dallas, to endow the Annette C. and Harold C. Simmons Transplant Institute. The couple paid $5 million toward the pledge in 2010 and plan to pay the remainder in annual $5 million increments through 2013. The donors also gave the health-system foundation two smaller donations: one of $25,000 for the foundation’s Celebrating Women breast-cancer fundraising campaign and another of $2,500 for its Advancing Nursing Excellence scholarship program. Ms. Simmons serves on the foundation’s board of directors.

—Maria Di Mento

48. Howard G. and Louise Phanstiel—$20.02 million to Syracuse University. The Phanstiels are managing directors of Phanstiel Enterprises, a private consulting and investment firm in Los Angeles. Howard Phanstiel, 62, is the former chief executive of PacifiCare Health Systems. He and Louise, 52, pledged $20 million to establish a scholarship program for middle-income students who are citizens of the United States. Howard Phanstiel grew up in a middle-income family in Merrick, N.Y., and held part-time jobs to help pay his way through Syracuse, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1970 and a master’s degree in public administration in 1971. He is a trustee of the university and a co-chair of its $1 billion capital campaign, which was started in 2007. The couple previously pledged $1.5 million in 2007 to help construct the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center. The couple started thinking about a big gift when Howard Phanstiel spearheaded a fundraising effort to assist students who might otherwise be forced to leave the university because the recession had harmed their family’s finances. Syracuse was able to provide more than $1 million in aid to more than 425 student as a result of the campaign. Howard Phanstiel also credits the late Paul Newman for compelling him to give. (He came to know the actor and philanthropist when his company sponsored Newman’s race car.) The Phanstiels hope that the gift makes it easier for middle-income students to attend the university. In a statement to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, they wrote: “As America’s middle-class families increasingly require assistance to supplement their own personal sacrifice in order to finance their children’s education, our intent is to make possible a meaningful financial award that makes the difference in a student’s ability to earn a degree from Syracuse.” The university did not disclose a payment schedule for the gift. The Phanstiels also gave $20,000 to the Community Folk Art Center at the university.

—Caroline Bermudez

49. Iris Cantor—$20 million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Cantor, the widow of B. Gerald Cantor, who founded Cantor Fitzgerald, a global securities firm in New York, pledged $20 million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center to establish a men’s health center, which will be named for Ms. Cantor and is scheduled to open in 2011. A payment schedule was not available. Cantor, who previously gave the organization $5 million in 2002 to establish the Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center, said in a written statement that almost 40 percent of the patients treated at the women’s center are men who were brought in by the women in their lives. “This signaled to me that there is a real need for a dedicated men’s health center,” said Cantor in the statement. “It is time for men to have a place of their own for comprehensive health care.”

— Maria Di Mento

49. Richard A. and Susan P. Friedman—$20 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center. Richard Friedman is head of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division, in New York. He and his wife, Susan, pledged $20 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York, to establish the Friedman Brain Institute. Richard Friedman, who has served on the medical center’s board of trustees since 2001, said he and his wife became interested in neuroscience after their son began to study the field in college and worked one summer at the medical center with the neuroscientist Eric J. Nestler, who is now the director of the brain institute. The couple began considering a large donation to the medical center in 2009. “Mount Sinai is in the midst of a major capital campaign, and we wanted to make a leadership gift that would build the brain institute, which is an important component of the medical center’s strategic plan,” said Richard Friedman. “It was important to us to find an area in which we could really focus our giving.” The Friedmans paid $12 million toward the pledge in 2010. He also serves on the board of Brown University, in Providence, R.I., as well as the boards of the Horace Mann School and Central Synagogue, both in New York.

—Maria Di Mento

49. Peter S. and Carolyn A. Lynch—$20 million to Boston College. Peter Lynch, 67, is vice chairman of the Fidelity Management and Research Company, in Boston. He and his wife, Carolyn, 64, pledged $20 million to Boston College for a new leadership academy to train new principals from Catholic, public, and charter schools. The academy will award 25 fellowships a year to leaders of Boston area schools. A time frame for the Lynches’ plan to pay off their pledge was unavailable. Peter Lynch graduated from Boston College in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. The couple gave $10 million to the college in 1999 for its School of Education, which is named for them.

—Maria Di Mento

49. Patrick E. and Barbara A. Roche—$20 million to Boston College. Patrick Roche, 81, is the co-founder and retired chairman of Roche Bros. supermarkets chain, in Wellesley, Mass. He and his wife, Barbara, 82, pledged $20 million to Boston College to endow its Center for Catholic Education, which trains undergraduate and graduate students to administer and teach in Catholic schools and universities nationwide and conducts research on Catholic institutions. The center will be named after the donors. Patrick Roche grew up in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston and graduated from Boston College in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He said in a written statement that Catholic education held personal significance in his life. “Our mother died when my brothers and I were young kids, ages 6-12, and our faith and Catholic education helped with our upbringing,” he said. “Catholic education was a great gift in my life. When Barbara and I saw the number of Catholic schools that were closing, we wanted to help, and [Boston College] gave us an opportunity to do so.” The college did not disclose a payment schedule for the gift.

—Caroline Bermudez

49. Albert P. (Skip) Viragh—$20 million to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Viragh, who died in 2003 at age 62, founded the Rydex SGI, a mutual-fund company in Rockville, Md. He bequeathed $20 million to the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, to establish a center for pancreatic-cancer research and patient care. The research center will be named for him. The donor was a patient at the cancer center and died from the disease. He made smaller donations to the medical institution before his death, according to executors of his estate. Viragh ranked No. 32 on the 2009 Slate 60 for a $28 million bequest he left that year to Chaminade College Preparatory School, in St. Louis, and while his executors would not disclose how much more in bequests they intend to award, they confirmed they plan to give away more in the coming years.

—Maria Di Mento

49. George A. Weiss—$20 million to the University of Pennsylvania. Weiss, 67, is president of George Weiss Associates, a money-management firm in New York. He is also chief executive officer of Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers. Weiss, 67, pledged $20 million to the University of Pennsylvania to endow four professorships for faculty members who hold joint appointments from two schools. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1965 from the university and has two daughters who graduated from the institution. He has been a trustee of the university since 1988 and is currently chair of its $3.5 billion fundraising campaign, which concludes in 2012. “By providing faculty support for the best teachers and scholars with an interdisciplinary focus, we can tackle the complex problems of our times and prepare Penn students to become leaders,” said Weiss in a written statement about his gift. The college did not disclose a payment schedule for the donation. Weiss is a regent of Trinity College, in Hartford, Conn.; a member of the board of directors at the Metropolitan Opera, in New York; and chairman of the board of directors at Say Yes to Education, a charity he founded in 1987 that helps low-income youths gain access to postsecondary education.

—Caroline Bermudez

55. Louis and Peaches Owen—$18 million to the Trinity Mother Frances Foundation. Louis Owen is a retired chemical engineer who worked in the petroleum-refining industry for 40 years. The couple, who lives in Tyler, Texas, pledged $18 million to the Trinity Mother Frances Foundation, the fundraising arm of Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics, in Tyler, to construct a hospital devoted to treating heart diseases. In a written statement, Peaches Owen said, “We never have really wanted to have it advertised that we’re doing these things, but if we come out and say we are doing this, maybe it will spur philanthropy in others. We’re all in this together, and we’re going to have to help each other.” The foundation did not disclose a payment schedule for the gift.

—Caroline Bermudez

55. Elizabeth J.M. Prince and Family—$18 million to Rhode Island Hospital and Newport Hospital. Prince is the heiress and great-granddaughter of Frederick Henry Prince, a Boston financier who owned two railroads as well as the Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. and Armour & Co., the meatpacking company, both in Chicago. Prince, along with her sons, Regis de Ramel, of Avondale, Pa., and Guillaume de Ramel, of Newport, R.I., and her daughter, Diana Oehrli, of Gstaad, Switzerland, gave $15 million to Rhode Island Hospital, in Providence, to develop and support the Norman Prince Neurosciences Institute, which will combine clinical and research efforts in neurosurgery, neurology, and psychiatry. The hospital says it is the biggest gift it has ever received. The focus on brain trauma is a response to a family tragedy: Norman Prince, a son of Frederick Henry Prince, was a member of a squadron of volunteers who had planned to fight for France in World War I. In 1916 his plane crashed, severely damaging his brain. He died three days later. Under the terms of her great-grandfather’s will, Prince, who lives in Newport, and her family had the responsibility to identify hospitals in Rhode Island. Her great-grandmother, Abigail, was born in Newport, and her great-grandparents were summer residents of the town. The donors have provided approximately $10 million so far to Rhode Island Hospital, with the remainder to be given over the next five years. In an e-mail, Prince said that her great-grandfather would have been pleased by the donation. She wrote: “Being an entrepreneur and developer who thought big, we believed that he would have been enthusiastic about the creation of a neurosciences institute that harbors the three neurosciences so that the work of research and care of patients can be accomplished collaboratively. Also, he would have appreciated the consequential economic impact that this center will have on the city and the state.” The family also gave $3 million to Newport Hospital, in Rhode Island, to combat drug and alcohol use, to promote the emotional and psychological well-being of youths and families in Newport County, and to run athletic programs and other events to promote health.— Caroline Bermudez

57. Betty Knoebel—$17.6 million to the University of Denver. Knoebel, 79, is the widow of Ferdinand Knoebel, who founded the Knoebel Mercantile Company, a bakery distributor in Denver, in 1929. Known as Nobel Inc., the organization was bought by Sysco as a subsidiary in 1982. Mr. Knoebel served as chairman of Nobel/Sysco Food Services Company until he retired in 1999 at the age of 90. He died in 2005. Of the $17.6 million pledged by Betty Knoebel, $12.1 million has already been paid to the University of Denver. The gift came in the form of cash, stock, and a 996-acre mountain ranch west of Denver. Knoebel earmarked $10 million to support research at the university’s Center for the Study of Aging, as well as to add faculty members to teach molecular life sciences and bioengineering. She also said that the university’s School of Hospitality Management should receive $7.5 million for faculty support, student scholarships, industry partnerships, and experiential learning programs. The remainder will go to the university’s operating costs. Ferdinand Knoebel was a native of Denver and did not attend college. The Knoebels have been longtime donors to the University of Denver; their first gift, in the mid-1980s, endowed a scholarship for low-income students from the Denver metropolitan area.—Caroline Bermudez

58. Arthur B. and Nancy Calcagnini—$17 million to Georgetown University. Arthur Calcagnini is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Lombard and Company, a commodities trading firm in New York, and Nancy Calcagnini is the former managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston, in New York. They pledged $17 million to Georgetown University for a new spiritual retreat and contemplative center in Bluemont, Va. They have already paid $7.8 million of the gift and plan to pay the rest over a period of more than five years. The Calcagninis previously donated $1.5 million to Georgetown for a nondenominational retreat program in 1992 and have supported chaplaincies, medical research, student scholarships, and other university activities and programs. Arthur Calcagnini graduated from Georgetown in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. In a news release, Arthur Calcagnini said of the couple’s gift: “I can’t think of a more important investment than to provide young people with the opportunity for quiet introspection and a chance to ask questions of themselves. This center will provide the potential to enrich every student for a lifetime. It is an important part of achieving the Jesuit philosophy of educating the whole person.”

—Caroline Bermudez

59. B. Thomas Golisano—$16.2 million to Unity Health System and Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples. Thomas Golisano, 69, is the founder and chairman of Paychex, a company in Rochester, N.Y., that provides businesses with benefits, human-resources, and payroll services. He pledged $10 million to Unity Health System to establish the Restorative Neurology & Rehabilitation Center, which will serve children and adults who have neurological conditions. Mr. Golisano has paid nearly $6.7 million so far and plans to pay the rest over the next five years. He also donated $5 million to the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, Fla.; $1 million to the Clinton Global Initiative, in New York; and $150,000 to Special Olympics International, in Washington.Golisano is a trustee of the Rochester Institute of Technology and has his own foundation, which is focused on helping disabled people. No new money went to the foundation in 2010.

—Caroline Bermudez

60. C. Michael and Anne Gossett Armstrong—$16 million to Miami University and the C. Michael Armstrong Family Foundation. Michael Armstrong is the retired chairman of Comcast Corporation, the cable-television and Internet service provider, in Philadelphia, and a former chairman and chief executive of AT&T. Armstrong and his wife, Anne, pledged $15 million to Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, to construct a new student center. The Armstrongs both received bachelor’s degrees from the university in 1961, Michael Armstrong’s in business and economics and Anne Gossett Armstrong’s in education. Neither the university nor the donors disclosed the payment schedule for the gift. In 2008 the Armstrongs gave $14.7 million to the university to establish the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies. The couple also gave $1 million last year to their C. Michael Armstrong Family Foundation, in Naples, Fla., where they live. The fund finances colleges, research, and efforts to help needy children.

—Caroline Bermudez

60. Robert M. and Dorothy C. Wopat—$16 million to the Marion Community Foundation. Ropert Wopat was the former president of the telecommunications company GTE’s Ohio Division, in Marion, Ohio. The company was sold to Verizon in 2000. Wopat, who died in 2008 at age 92, and his wife, Dorothy, who died in 2009 at age 94, bequeathed $16 million to the Marion Community Foundation. Their donation was the result of a long relationship the couple had with the organization that eventually became the community foundation. Robert Wopat was the former board chairman of the MedCenter Hospital and served on the board from 1965 until 1998, when the hospital was sold. The hospital’s foundation changed its name to the Marion Community Foundation, broadening the group’s mission beyond health care to focus on a range of local needs. The gift is the largest the foundation has ever received, according to the organization’s president, Bradley Bebout, and will double its endowment. Sixty percent of the bequest, $9.6 million, will create a donor-advised fund; the remainder will be evenly split between a scholarship fund for high-school seniors and college students and for the Marion Family YMCA.

—Caroline Bermudez

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