News

Francis Marion University receives $12.5 million for medical education
The gift from the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation will support a new medical education consortium focused on increasing the number of third- and fourth-year medical school students who come to the Pee Dee region to complete their education....

Morgan State receives $15 million gift from alumnus
The largest gift from an alumnus in Morgan State history will strengthen the Calvin and Tina Tyler Endowed Scholarship Fund, which the Tylers created with a $5 million gift in 2016....

Helmsley Charitable Trust awards $10 million for AEDs in Iowa
The project will support efforts to deploy more than four thousand automatic external defibrillators in law enforcement vehicles across the state and provide training in their use to law enforcement professionals....

Billionaire philanthropy is a PR scam, wealth tax proponent argues
Weighing in on a debate in the Washington state legislature over a proposal to create the nation's first state wealth tax, Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price argues that billionaire philanthropy is "[o]ne of capitalism's biggest PR scams...."

Three couples sign on to Giving Pledge
The new signatories include Bongjin Kim and Bomi Sul, Ben and Divya Silbermann, and Byron and Tina Trott....

Marymount Manhattan College receives $25 million gift
The gift from alumna Judith Mara Carson ('03) and her family — the largest in the college's eighty-five-year history — includes $15 million to establish the Judith Mara Carson Center for Visual Arts and $10 million for scholarships....

Warner Music, Blavatnik Foundation announce social justice grants
Established in June, the $100 million Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Foundation Social Justice Fund awarded grants to six organizations working to build more equitable communities....

TriHealth receives $10 million gift for new heart hospital
The gift from Harold and Eugenia Thomas will enable TriHealth Heart Hospital to add forty thousand square feet of clinical space and modernize eighty thousand square feet of existing space on its Bethesda North Campus....

Kiphart Family Foundation awards $25 million for global health center
The gift will establish the Susan and Richard Kiphart Center for Global Health and Social Development and support global health and development research and initiatives....

Ariel Investments, JPMorgan Chase to invest in minority businesses
Co-founded by Ariel Investments co-CEO Mellody Hobson and Sarr Group CEO and chair Leslie A. Brun, Ariel Alternatives will work to close the racial wealth gap by transforming middle-market companies that are not currently minority owned into certified minority business enterprises and scaling existing Black and Latinx-owned businesses....

Goldman Sachs commits $25 million to HBCUs
The commitment is tied to a four-month course taught by Goldman Sachs professionals that includes hands-on training, extracurricular activities, and a case study competition, "Market Madness," in which students vie for cash prizes that are donated to their schools....

McGovern Foundation announces $4.1 million for tech education
Grants will support efforts to strengthen technology education and increase diversity in the tech workforce....

Ruth Mott Foundation extends Flint-based strategy through 2025
Launched in 2016, the strategy addresses the top four priorities of North Flint residents — youth, public safety, economic opportunity, and neighborhoods....

Knight Foundation launches tech-focused artist fellowship program
Through the Knight Arts + Tech Fellowship program, unrestricted grants of $50,000 were awarded to five artists employing innovative approaches to technology and new media....

People in the News (02/21/2021): appointments, promotions, obituaries
The latest staff and board announcements from the philanthropic sector....

Novant Health receives $10 million from Michael Jordan for clinics
Slated to open in early 2022 in New Hanover County, the two clinics will provide comprehensive primary care to the uninsured and underinsured....

Report highlights impact of effective principals on student outcomes
An update to a 2004 report, the research review commissioned by the Wallace Foundation draws on more than two hundred studies over twenty years and argues that school leaders are even more important to student success than previously believed and that investments in successful strategies to better prepare and support them often lead to large payoffs....

Community Foundation Update (02/20/2021)
News and staff announcements from community foundations in Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C....

Comcast NBCUniversal commits $2.5 million to advance racial equity
The grant to Echoing Green's Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund will provide various kinds of support for leaders working to dismantle structural racism and build inclusive economies....

Wisconsin Historical Society receives $10 million for museum
The gift from philanthropist W. Jerome Frautschi will unlock $70 million in state funding for construction of the $120 million, 100,000-square-foot museum in downtown Madison....

Sloan Foundation announces 2021 Research Fellowships
A hundred and twenty-eight early-career scientists and scholars in eight disciplines — chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, earth systems science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics — will each receive a grant of $75,000 over two years....

Foundations back $300 million venture fund for global health
With investments from the Doris Duke Charitable, Ford, Gates, MacArthur, Children's Investment Fund, and Sorenson Impact foundations, the fund will support promising new technologies aimed at treating or preventing conditions that for the most part have been ignored by venture capital....

Fidelity Charitable donors awarded $9.1 billion in grants in 2020
According to the organization's 2021 Giving Report, more than 250,000 donors recommended two million grants to 170,000 charities in 2020, with grants to human services organizations accounting for nearly a quarter of all grants awarded....

Returns on educational endowments fell sharply in FY20, study finds
According to the 2020 NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments, the endowments of more than seven hundred U.S. colleges and universities returned an average of 1.8 percent, net of fees, in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020, down from 5.2 percent in FY19....

Howard Hughes Medical Institute announces 2020 Hanna Gray Fellows
Twenty-one early-career scientists will receive up to $1.4 million over eight years to pursue research into some of the greatest challenges in the life sciences....

UMD receives $9 million from Brin family for performing arts institute
The gift from Google co-founder Sergey Brin's parents and Brin's family foundation will establish the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, support research initiatives, and fund new teaching positions, undergraduate scholarships, classroom and studio renovations, and instructional technology....

Arthur M. Blank, Bernie Marcus commit $40 million for veterans' health
Commitments of $20 million each from Home Depot co-founders Arthur M. Blank and Bernie Marcus will support the launch of the Gary Sinise Foundation Avalon Network, an integrative treatment and training network focused on providing care for veterans and first-responders impacted by post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, and substance abuse....

Online giving up more than 20 percent in 2020, report finds
According to the latest edition of Blackbaud's Charitable Giving Report, online giving grew 20.7 percent in 2020, with the share of total giving coming via online donations rising to 13 percent, the largest share as a percentage of total giving in the history of the report....