Some Jewish
mega-donors
By
Joe
Berkofsky
· February 23, 2004
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Robert
Meyerhoff
A Maryland real- estate
developer, and his wife, Jane, promised last
year to bequeath their $300 million collection of more than 100 modern
art works to Washington´s National Gallery of Art.
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Irwin
Jacobs
Chairman and chief
executive officer of the San Diego wireless company Qualcomm,
and his wife, Joan, pledged $110 million to the University of
California-San Diego´s Jacobs School of Engineering, which bears their
name.
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Ray And
Joan Kroc
Behind the McDonald's
franchises These
Jewish
couples were among dozens of philanthropists such as McDonald´s
heiress Joan Kroc who gave the most generous
donations to charities in 2003, according to a new Chronicle of
Philanthropy report. They also signal the continuation of a longtime
trend, where the biggest "mega-gifts" from Jews go to non-Jewish
causes. "This is the pattern of
Jewish
mega-giving," said Gary Tobin, president of the
Institute of
Jewish
& Community Research, in San Francisco. "For the most part, the
largest gifts that
Jewish
philanthropists make go to higher education, health-related causes,
and arts and culture — that´s it."
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Michael
Dell
Chairman and chief
executive officer of Dell Computers, and his
wife, Susan, who gave $673 million in Dell stock to the Michael and
Susan Dell Foundation in Austin, Texas, which supports child-
development programs; •
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Eli Broad
Chairman of American
International Group Retirement Services of New
York, and his wife, Edythe, who gave $409 million to the Eli and
Edythe L. Broad Foundation in Los Angeles, which supports medical
research, their Broad Foundation, which improves public schools, and
the Broad Art Foundation;
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Jeffrey Skoll,
former president of the
online auction site eBay, who gave $81.3 million
in eBay stock to the Skoll Foundation, which supports social
entrepreneurship. Other prominent Jews on the multimillion-dollar
donor list included Atlantan
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Citigroup
Chairman Sanford Weill
Cititcorp Banking
and his wife, Joan; and San Francisco venture capitalist Arthur
Rock. The Meyerhoff and Jacobs families were
among those the Chronicle of Philanthropy said did not actually donate
but pledged at least $25 million in 2003.
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Arthur
Blank
Chairman of the Home Depot
store chain
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Lawrence Ellison
Chief executive of the
Oracle software corporation;
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; New
Jersey author and publisher Herbert Axelrod
and his wife, Evelyn; Pennsylvania real-estate developer Zell Kravinsky
and his wife, Emily; Other Jews on that pledge list included Morris
Silverman, founder of National Equipment Rental, and Bert Wolstein, an
Ohio developer, and his wife, Iris. According to the joint analysis by the
Chronicle and Slate, big giving rebounded last year along with the
economy, amounting to $5.9 billion, up from $4.6 billion the previous
year. Much of the money went to the philanthropists´ own nonprofit
foundations, which in turn grant funds to scores of causes, including the
arts, education and medicine. Topping all giving and pledges was the late
Joan Kroc,
the widow of McDonald´s founder,
Ray
Kroc,
who left $1.91 billion to 10 organizations, including $1.5 billion to the
Salvation Army and $200 million to National Public Radio. With big giving
continuing to elude both
Jewish
and non-Jewish
religious causes, Tobin suggested it was not because all
Jewish
philanthropists do not care about
Jewish
causes. In fact, many of the mega-donors, such as Broad and Dell, support
their local
Jewish
federations or other
Jewish
causes. Meanwhile, other longtime
Jewish
mega-donors did not make the list, either because the Chronicle of
Philanthropy was not able to collect details about their giving, or
because the lists only included new gifts made in 2003 rather than ongoing
grant-making by philanthropic foundations.
Many
major givers to
Jewish
causes include the Bronfman family
foundations; the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Koret Foundation,
Michael and Judy Steinhardt´s
Jewish
Life Network, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the
Wexner Foundation. But Tobin said
Jewish
institutions and the federation system remains ill-equipped structurally
to receive the kind of big gifts academic or cultural institutions
receive. "The way we think about raising money in this community needs
serious re-examination," Tobin said. Mark Charendoff, president of the
Jewish
Funders Network, an organization that helps
Jewish
foundations develop more effective philanthropy strategies, agreed with
Tobin. But Charendoff said the onus remains on
Jewish
institutions to turn the mega-gift tide. "There has to be a lesson here
for the
Jewish
community," Charendoff said of the Chronicle of Philanthropy-Slate study.
He said that Jews should examine how an organization like the Salvation
Army, to which Joan
Kroc
gave $1.5 billion, and "which would not make it on anyone´s short list of
the most cutting-edge, innovative philanthropic destinations in America,
captivated this woman´s imagination so that she would give this sum."
"What vision are we trying to sell?" Charendoff said.
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