The 1998 Slate 60
The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1998.

Introduction

The 1998 Slate 60
The 60 largest American charitable contributions of 1998.

Anonymous Gifts From Individuals, 1998
$10 million and above.

Honorable Mentions
100 other known gifts of more than $5 million in 1998.

11-ENGELSTAD 10. RALPH and BETTY ENGELSTAD--$100 million to the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA to construct a 12,000 seat hockey arena and for other undetermined uses. The new arena will replace one built in 1972 that was named after Ralph Engelstad in 1987 in honor of his numerous gifts. That year the couple donated $5 million for endowment; in 1998 they gave stock worth $2 million for athletics; and also last year Ralph Engelstad donated a collection of military documents valued at $1.4 million to the university library. He is the owner of the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

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10. SANFORD I. and JOAN WEILL--a $100 million pledge to the CORNELL UNIVERSITY Medical School (N.Y.), which will be renamed for the couple. The donation, the largest in Cornell's history, will be used to fund research in structural biology, genetic medicine, and the neurosciences. The school had launched a $154 million fund-raising campaign to build its research capacity. "It was going a little slow, and I was getting bored," the New York Times quotes Weill as saying. "We figured maybe we could do something to get this process going." Sanford Weill is a Cornell graduate, a trustee emeritus, and chairman of the medical school board. He is CEO of Travelers Group Inc. and future chairman of Citigroup.

12. THE SAM and HELEN WALTON FAMILY--a total of $91.7 million: This includes a $50 million gift to the UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS College of Business Administration made through the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, established by Wal-Mart's founder, the late Sam Walton, and his wife, Helen. With this gift, Walton family contributions to the University of Arkansas total nearly $64 million. The business school will be renamed in honor of Sam Walton. Also, $2.2 million to BENTONVILLE HIGH SCHOOL in Arkansas. Helen Walton announced the gift, adding that most of her children and grandchildren have attended or are currently enrolled in the Bentonville School District. Plus, $39.5 million as a challenge gift to the UNIVERSITY OF THE OZARKS in Clarksville, Ark. Helen Walton is a lifetime trustee of the university and has been the board's honorary lifetime chair since 1984.

13. THE DANIEL R. EFROYMSON FAMILY--$90 million to the INDIANAPOLIS FOUNDATION and the CENTRAL INDIANA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION to create the Efroymson Family Fund. The gift will be spent in five areas: the viability of Indianapolis, the needs of disadvantaged people, the natural environment, historical preservation, and the well-being of Jewish people. The family's ties to the region go back to a one room dry-goods store started by Gustav Efroymson in 1912, the same year he started the Public Welfare Loan Association as a way to counter loan sharking, which was rampant at the time. Dan Efroymson, his grandson, is chairman of the board of advisers of the Nature Conservancy.

14. JAMES GABBERT and MIKE LINCOLN--$70 million to the land conservation group TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND in San Francisco. These business partners donated their stock in Pacific FM Inc., which owns KOFY-TV (founded by them in 1980 and now one of the nation's largest independent stations), to the trust, which then sold it for $174 million. The gift was made in the form of charitable trusts, from which the donors will receive income during their lifetimes. The principal of the gift cannot be spent by the trust until Gabbert's and Lincoln's deaths.

14. ARTHUR L. and ANGELA WILLIAMS--$70 million to LIBERTY UNIVERSITY (Va.), erasing a decade of debt and freeing its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, to resume his role as "an outspoken emissary for conservative Christians." Now, said Art Williams, Liberty has "a chance to become for evangelical Christians what Notre Dame is to Catholics and what Brigham Young is to Mormons." Williams is a retired life insurance tycoon who settled the university's debt in September 1997 but asked that his identity be kept a secret. He agreed to announce the gift in early 1998 after Falwell convinced him the publicity would provide momentum for a campaign to raise $100 million and to double the school's enrollment by 2005. Williams, who used to be a high-school teacher, started the A.L. Williams Co. in 1977. He sold the company, which dominated the market for lower-priced term insurance policies, to Primerica (now Travelers Group) in 1989. That same year he wrote the best-selling All You Can Do Is All You Can Do but All You Can Do Is Enough! Williams recently bought the Tampa Bay Lightning National Hockey League team.

16. THEODORE FORSTMANN--$50 million to the CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND (Washington) to help more than 50,000 public school children around the country attend private schools. Forstmann is co-founder of the investment firm of Forstmann, Little & Co. and chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. The Children's Scholarship Fund started out in five cities: Chicago; Jersey City, N.J.; Los Angeles; New York City; and Washington; and has since added more.

16. W. JEROME "JERRY" FRAUTSCHI--$50 million to MADISON, WIS., for the development of a downtown cultural district providing performance, exhibition, rehearsal, administration, and storage space for local arts organizations. The gift allows arts organizations to focus on programming; no funding will be directed to operations. Frautschi, 67, recently retired as vice chairman of Webcrafters Inc., an offset printing firm. The Overture Foundation, which Frautschi created in 1997, will oversee the effort. The impetus for the contribution came from several recent studies concluding that Madison is rich in visual and performing arts but poor in facilities to present them. "It's wonderful," said Madison Mayor Sue Bauman. "It is probably an opportunity that's unequaled anywhere in the country."

16. JOHN WALTON--$50 million to the CHILDREN'S SCHOLARSHIP FUND as a companion gift to Theodore Forstmann's (above). Walton is a director of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a son of Wal-Mart's founder, the late Sam Walton.

19. PETER B. LEWIS--$49 million: The total includes a $40 million pledge added to Lewis' 1995 gift of $10 million to the SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION (N.Y.). The foundation administers five institutions: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York; the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy; the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain; and Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin. The new pledge is solely for the endowment. Also, a $9 million addition to his previous gift of $15 million to CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY in Cleveland for construction of the Weatherhead School of Management's new campus. Lewis is chairman, CEO, and president of the Progressive Corp., a Cleveland-based insurance organization.

20. GORDON and BETTY MOORE--a total of $47.5 million: $35 million to CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL (Washington) to establish an international group devoted to finding and resolving critical threats to the environment. Edward O. Wilson, an author and evolutionary biology professor at Harvard University, will be chairman of the new Center for Applied Biodiversity Science's advisory council. The executive director will be Gustavo Fonseca, vice president of Conservation International's Brazilian programs. The center's initial priorities will be resolving problems associated with logging, mining, and other industrial processes. Also, $12.5 million to CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY (England) to create a science library to house the archives of physicist Stephen Hawking, which include a draft of his book A Brief History of Time. The university also houses the archives of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Gordon Moore is co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corp.

21-BLOOMBERG 21. MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG--$45 million to JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY (Md.), adding to his 1995 "first installment" of $55 million. His overall $100 million contribution is the largest given to a Washington-area university. "I've been a believer that there is nothing you can do with truly disposable income that will give you as much pleasure as giving it for something you believe in and letting others take it and do important things," said Bloomberg, who is chairman of the Johns Hopkins board of trustees and a 1964 Johns Hopkins engineering graduate. Two-thirds of the new donation is to be devoted to financial aid for full-time undergraduates in the arts and sciences and in engineering. Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P. in 1981 and has built it into a worldwide multimedia news service for investment and securities firms, government offices, and news organizations.

21. SHELBY M. C. and GALE DAVIS--$45 million to the ARMAND HAMMER UNITED WORLD COLLEGE OF THE AMERICAN WEST near Santa Fe, N.M., to fund scholarships for Americans to study at the internationally focused, two year preparatory school for motivated high-school students. The school is the only United World College in the United States and one of 10 worldwide. The system's mission is to train students to be world leaders and to foster global understanding. The Davises are making the gift through their S&G Foundation. Shelby Davis, CEO of Davis Selected Advisers L.P., a mutual fund and money management firm, is the son of the late Shelby Cullom Davis, a renowned Wall Street investor and philanthropist.

21. BERNARD MARCUS--$45 million to the KENNEDY KRIEGER INSTITUTE, a Baltimore-based organization that treats children with developmental disabilities. The gift will be used to establish a national network for services for children with brain disorders and their families. Marcus is co-founder and chairman of The Home Depot Inc. "We've had a very good year and feel we want to give back to the community," Marcus told Reuters. "Hopefully we are going to be joining some other philanthropists ... basically helping children." Marcus also announced that the Marcus Institute of Atlanta, which provides services for children suffering from cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation, brain injuries, and learning disorders, will merge with the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Marcus and his wife Billi founded the Marcus Institute in 1990 after observing a Home Depot employee's struggle to find services for a retarded child.

Photographs of: Betty and Ralph Englestad courtesy of the UND Alumni Association; Michael Bloomberg by Gregory Heisler.

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