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

51. FRANK MORSANI and CAROL MORSANI--$8 million to the COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER TAMPA (Fla.), a six-year-old community-endowment fund from this Tampa Bay auto dealer and his wife. The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center will receive the lion's share of the donation--some $5 million. In recognition of the gift, the center's Festival Hall will be renamed Carol Morsani Hall.

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52. DONALD L. SAUNDERS--$7.5 million to COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTROPIES (Mass.), America's oldest federated charity. The gift comes in two parts. The first $500,000 is an immediate pledge to the capital portion of the centennial campaign. The additional $7 million endowment is in the form of a bequest. Its exact purpose is yet to be determined. Saunders is chairman and CEO of Saunders Real Estate & Hotels in Boston. He is an alumnus of Brown University, and is on the board of the Jerusalem Foundation and other charities. The other family members included in this gift are Saunders' mother, SHIRLEY; his daughters, LISA and PAM, and their husbands; his granddaughters, TAL and ARIEL; and his wife, LIV ULLMAN, the distinguished Norwegian actress, director, and author.

53. STANLEY HOWE and HELEN HOWE--$6 million and $1 million in furniture to IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY from the former chairman of Hon Industries and his wife to construct and furnish the Engineering and Teaching Research Complex. TOTAL: $7 million.

54. JAMES R. CARREKER--$6.5 million to the GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY for the school of electrical engineering from the chairman and CEO of Aspect Telecommunications.

55. JAMES MICHENER--$5.5 million to three cultural institutions in Doylestown, Pa., the novelist's hometown. Through the Michener Marital Trust, established by Michener and his late wife MARI, he pledged $3.5 million to the endowment of the JAMES A. MICHENER ART MUSEUM, to which he had previously donated $2.5 million. The Mercer Museum and the Bucks County Free Library, both of which Michener credits with stirring his imagination as a youngster, will each receive $1 million. The best-selling author has donated more than $100 million to libraries, universities, and museums over the course of his 40-year career, and was named the National Society of Fund Raising Executives' Outstanding Philanthropist for 1996.

56. JAMES L. BARKSDALE--$5.4 million from the president and CEO of Netscape Communications Corp. to his alma mater, the UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, to start an honors program to be called the McDonnell-Barksdale Honors College. The university said the gift will help it attract the state's brightest students and keep them from going elsewhere.

57. ARTHUR BLANK--$5 million to BABSON COLLEGE (Mass.) from this alumnus of the Class of 1963. Blank is the co-founder of Home Depot.

58. WILLIAM BOND JR.--$5 million to the UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME from this alumnus and senior partner in the Memphis, Tenn., investment and asset management firm Bond, Johnson & Bond. The gift underwrote the nearly completed renovation and expansion of the architecture building at the university--the building has been renamed Bond Hall. The gift was kept anonymous until recently. Among his other gifts was one of $1.2 million, made in 1984, to establish the Montedonico Fellowship master's degree program in architecture in honor of his mother, Rose Montedonico Bond.

59. FREDERICK ERB and BARBARA ERB--$5 million to the UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN BUSINESS SCHOOL to bridge the gap between environmentalists and the business community. Both Erbs are alumni of the university. Frederick Erb inherited, and later sold, the Erb Lumber Co. chain, now based in Birmingham, Mich. The Erb Institute will be administered by the Business and Natural Resources schools.

60. ANTHONY CAPOZZOLO--money, sculpture, real estate, and personal possessions valued at $5 million to the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA from this Palm Springs, Calif., retired choreographer and producer, for performing-arts programs, scholarships, and an annual arts and music festival.

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