Major Gifts

A UC Davis alumnus who says that some of his most powerful college experiences took place on the athletics field has made a $2 million commitment to Intercollegiate Athletics — the largest single philanthropic contribution to athletics in the university's 102-year history.

Bruce Edwards, together with his wife, Diane, made the gift to support Aggie Stadium. Edwards is a 1960 graduate who played football and ran track for UC Davis. The funds will go toward the stadium’s maintenance and operations, and may be used for future enhancements or expansion.

Paul and Muffy Christen made a $20 million bequest to the South Dakota Community Foundation, which will provide the nonprofit agency with an estimated $562,000 per year in interest earnings to give to charities statewide.

The donation takes three parts. A quarter of it will be a donation to the South Dakota Fund, which makes unrestricted donations throughout the state. That $5 million grant is a "challenge grant," taking effect only when the foundation raises another $5 million to match it, for a total increase of $10 million.

It's difficult to resist petting these hard workers. But Freedom Service Dogs have a job to do. And the Englewood, Colo.-based organization that trains the canines and pairs them with people with disabilities who can benefit from these working dogs' help ensure that they're able to do that job.

The University of Maine’s field house and Memorial Gym project has received a huge boost as the result of a $5 million gift to the institution from Boston-based athletic products company New Balance.

The field house will be renamed the “New Balance Field House” and the student recreation and fitness center will be known as the “New Balance Student Recreation and Fitness Center” for a 20-year period in return for the $5 million gift.

While many charities are still struggling to raise money in the face of a sluggish economy, giving by America’s wealthiest donors appears to be making a comeback.

From January 1 through May 15, The Chronicle of Philanthropy has confirmed 225 donations of $1-million or more totaling close to $2.4-billion. That is at least $1-billion more than in 2010, when 145 such donations accounted for more than $1.3-billion.

And donations of $100-million or more also surged this year. In fact, gifts of that size have more than doubled since 2010.

Bard College, a small liberal arts institution in the Hudson Valley, has received a $60 million gift from the Open Society Foundations in recognition of its global involvement, which includes programs in New Orleans, Nicaragua and Russia, officials are to announce on Tuesday.

The gift from Open Society, which George Soros created in the 1980s to foster democracies around the world, will help the college bring its disparate programs under a new umbrella, the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement, and assure their continuing operation and growth.

The University of Pennsylvania on Tuesday received a record gift of $225 million for its School of Medicine from Philadelphia philanthropist Raymond G. Perelman and his wife Ruth.

Perelman signed the papers finalizing the gift on Tuesday at the home of University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, he said later Tuesday.

The gift benefiting the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, as it will now be known, had been in the works for about a year, Perelman said.

A seven-figure gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts from former General Motors group vice president Roy Roberts and his wife, Maureen, has put a spotlight on the relative dearth of high-profile African-American philanthropists, Crain's Detroit Business and the Detroit Free Press report.

In recognition of the first seven-figure contribution to DIA by an African American, the museum will rename one of its galleries after the couple.

A number of wealthy philanthropists are making bold demands on schools as a condition of giving.

John Allison, former chairman of bank holding company BB&T Corp., admires author Ayn Rand so much that he devised a strategy to spread her principles on U.S. campuses. Allison, working through the BB&T Charitable Foundation, gives schools grants of as much as $2 million if they agree to create a course on capitalism and make Rand’s masterwork, “Atlas Shrugged,” required reading.

Faculty at several schools that have accepted Allison’s terms are protesting, saying donors shouldn’t have the power to set curriculum to pursue their political agendas.

Dr. Amar Bose, Bose Corp.'s founder, has given to MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corp. in the form of non-voting shares.  

MIT will receive annual cash dividends on those shares when dividends are paid by Bose Corp.; those cash dividends will be used by MIT to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission.

Under the terms of the gift, MIT cannot sell its Bose shares and will not participate in the management or governance of the company.