The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1996.

Introduction

The 1996 SLATE 60
The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1996.

The Also-Rans
Other known gifts of over $1 million in 1996.

Competitive Generosity 101

11. PHILIP H. KNIGHT--$25 million to the UNIVERSITY OF OREGON from this 1959 graduate, who is chairman of the board and CEO of Nike. Of this, $15 million will be used to endow up to 17 professorships. The remaining $10 million will be put toward the construction of a new law library. The law library will be named in honor of Knight's father, William Knight, who graduated from the university in 1932.

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12. ALFRED LERNER--$25 million to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (N.Y.) from the chairman and CEO of MBNA Corp., one of the nation's largest credit-card companies. Lerner is an alumnus of the university.

13. THOMAS H. LEE--$22 million to HARVARD UNIVERSITY, the seventh-largest gift ever received by the university and the largest contribution given by anyone of Lee's generation. Of the total, "a whopping $19 million" may be spent at the discretion of President Neil Rudenstine and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy Knowles. The remaining $3 million will fund projects in medicine, the arts, and education. Lee is the founder and CEO of the Thomas Lee Cos., a venture-capital firm based in Boston. He is married to Ann Tennenbaum, a Savannah, Ga., native and graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (N.Y.).

14. SIDNEY KNAFEL--$20 million to HARVARD UNIVERSITY for its capital campaign.

15. PETER M. NICHOLAS--$20 million to DUKE UNIVERSITY for its School of the Environment from this alumnus who says he enrolled at Duke only after failing the eye exam at the Naval Academy. Nicholas is president of Boston Scientific Corp. in Massachusetts and a trustee of Duke. He said he pledged the money, "first and foremost, as a vote of confidence in Duke University." Half the donation will help pay for a wing in the new Levine Science Research Center; the remaining $10 million will be divided among endowments for professorships, a fellows-in-residence program, and unrestricted endowment. "To environmentalists, the gift is an unusual show of support for an area of research that has long been a poor relation to schools of medicine and law."

16. THE FAMILY OF THE LATE SEN. H. JOHN HEINZ--$20 million to establish a research center in his name where experts from academia, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector can join to seek firmer ground for environmental policies in science and economics. The sponsors said the gift was one of the largest single philanthropic grants ever offered in environmental circles. TERESA HEINZ, widow of Sen. Heinz and chairwoman of the Heinz Family Philanthropies, is an active environmentalist and vice chairperson of the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group that has made a mark developing strategies that use financial incentives to lower the costs of protecting the environment. The donation to establish the Heinz Center comes from the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, one of the philanthropies associated with the family.

17. FREDERICK P. ROSE and SANDRA ROSE--$20 million to the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Frederick Rose, chairman of Rose Associates, a real-estate investment company, and Sandra Rose, a consultant, made the gift anonymously last autumn to help rebuild the museum's planetarium. Rose is a museum trustee and chair of the planetarium project.

18. The PIGOTT FAMILY, the BRAUN FAMILY, and the LANE FAMILY--$20 million to STANFORD UNIVERSITY (Calif.) for the Restoration Fund to help rebuild and strengthen campus structures. As part of the fund-raising drive, major donors could choose to have their names associated with certain buildings and rooms on campus that have not been named in honor of a previous gift. Language Corner will be renamed "Pigott Hall"; Geology Corner will be renamed "Braun Corner"; and History Corner will be renamed "Lane History Corner." CHARLES PIGOTT is a Stanford trustee; HENRY LANE heads his family's trust; and L.W. "BILL" LANE JR. is co-chairman of Lane Publishing Co.

19. BETTY BROWN CASEY--$18 million to the WASHINGTON OPERA to enable it to purchase a former department-store building as a new home for the opera company. Casey is chair of the board of trustees of the opera, and is particularly interested in the young-artists program.

20. JOSEPH D. JAMAIL and LEE JAMAIL--gifts totaling $16 million from this attorney and his wife: They include $5 million to his alma mater, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN; $3 million to the MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS in Houston; $1 million to the BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE (Texas) for program support; $5 million to RICE UNIVERSITY (Texas) for program support; $1 million to the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS M.D. ANDERSON CANCER CENTER for program support; $1 million to the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER in HOUSTON for program support. The couple also made a $1 million gift to the LEE AND JOSEPH JAMAIL FOUNDATION.

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