A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
1803 Fund
Penny and Phil Knight pledged $400 million to establish this new nonprofit’s Rebuild Albina program, an effort to revive the economic and cultural prosperity of Albina, a historic area of Portland, Ore., that was once a thriving Black neighborhood.
In the 1970s, many Black families in Albina were displaced by a combination of discriminatory government practices, predatory lending, and major construction projects that destroyed businesses and tore the area apart. The Rebuild Albina effort will renovate the area, pay for education programs and education-related services for children and their families, and back projects aimed at deepening the area’s cultural roots.
The couple have given extensively in recent years to Oregon charities working to help underserved people, and they have donated at least $4 billion to charity over the last decade, with significant gifts going to Portland-area nonprofits. They’ve appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors nine times since 2006.
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Ross Stevens gave $100 million to support the Ph.D. program, which will be named the Stevens Doctoral Program. The gift will increase stipends for Ph.D. students, more than double research support for data and computing, and provide additional financial support for the top incoming students.
In addition, the gift will establish a new alumni mentoring program that will seek to connect current Ph.D. students with Ph.D. alumni across academe, government, and industry. Stevens will co-chair the mentoring program.
Stevens founded and leads Stone Ridge Holdings Group, an alternative asset-management firm in New York that invests in reinsurance and bitcoin. He earned a Ph.D. from the Booth School in 1996 and started his career at Goldman Sachs.
George Mason University School of Business
Donald Costello left $50 million to establish an endowment that will provide scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students. The business school will be named for Costello.
Costello co-founded Century Stair Company, a luxury staircase manufacturer in Haymarket, Va. He was not a George Mason alumnus but had a lot of respect for the university’s graduates, his lawyer and estate representative, Joseph Contrucci, told a local news outlet.
Costello served the U.S. Army in the 1960s, and started his career working in a warehouse. He later sold wood paneling and stairs for a millwork company before starting Century Stair in 1976. He died in 2017.
Success Academy and Miami Dade College
Kenneth Griffin gave $25 million through his Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund to expand Success Academy’s programs by more than 50 percent over the next five years so that more children can attend the organization’s charter schools.
He also gave $20 million to Miami Dade College to establish the Griffin Scholarship Fund to aid students graduating from high school in Miami-Dade County who want to attend the community college. The scholarship will cover tuition assistance, books, and tutors, as well as provide career coaches, study-abroad opportunities, emergency funds, and additional services.
Griffin founded Citadel Investment Group, a Miami hedge fund, and has given extensively to arts and culture groups, medical care and research, universities, and other nonprofits. He appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors in 2014, the year he gave Harvard, his alma mater, $150 million to support financial aid. He was criticized in April when he gave the university $300 million.
Purdue University
JeanAnne (Jeannie) and Jim Chaney pledged $17 million to back the Chaney Family Scholarship Endowment, which supports scholarships and other programs established by the Chaneys to benefit the College of Pharmacy. Those include the JeanAnne D. & James B. Chaney Scholarship in Pharmacy, the JeanAnne Darr and James B. Chaney Education and Development Fund, the Jim and JeanAnne Chaney Pharmacy Student Support Endowment, and the James Russel Maier Memorial Scholarship.
Jeannie Chaney, who graduated from Purdue in 1961, worked as a pharmacist in Ohio for nearly 50 years before retiring in 2011. She has served as chair of the Purdue President’s Council and as a member of the steering committee of Pharmacy Women for Purdue and the Pharmacy Alumni Board. Jim Chaney is president of the Cleveland Syrup Corporation, which provides sweeteners to food-manufacturing companies.
In addition, Barbara and William Rakosnik pledged more than $10.1 million to the university to support programs within the School of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Psychological Sciences, and University Residences. The commitment includes $125,000 to establish endowments and a $10 million trust fund that will provide continued support.
William Rakosnik retired after working for more than 30 years in production control and distribution management at IBM. Barbara Rakosnik, who is also retired, worked in architecture and later started an embroidery business called Periwinkle Promises. The Rakosniks are Purdue alumni. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial administration in 1969 and 1970, respectively. She earned a bachelor’s degree in health and human sciences in 1970.
St. Stephen’s Episcopal School
Julia (Jill) Mathews Wilkinson gave $17 million through her Still Water Foundation to build a water-sports complex to house the private Austin, Tex., School’s aquatics programs. Mathews Wilkinson is an artist in Austin.
She established the Still Water Foundation in 1982, and it primarily supports Texas charities focused on the arts, education, the environment, spirituality, and social services. She is an heiress to a Texas real-estate and oil fortune that was built by her grandparents, Percy and Ruth Jones.
University of California at Los Angeles
Peter Merlone gave $15 million to back the UCLA Affordability Initiative, a campuswide effort to make an undergraduate degree more affordable by raising money for scholarships to eliminate the burden of student loans.
Merlone is a real-estate investor who founded several commercial real-estate and property-management firms including Merlone Geier Partners. He earned two degrees from UCLA in 1979: a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in education.
University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice
Brian and Randi Schwartz gave $12.5 million to establish the Randi and Brian Schwartz Social Innovation Scholarship, which will provide financial aid to a cohort of master’s degree students, who will be known as the Schwartz Scholars.
The scholarship will be awarded to a student in the Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership Program, beginning in the fall of 2024. As the program grows, the Schwartz Scholars will expand to include students in the school’s other master’s degree programs.
Brian Schwartz is co-president of H.I.G. Capital, a Miami private-equity firm. Before joining the firm in 1994, he worked in PepsiCo’s strategic-planning group. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the university in 1989 and serves on the university’s Board of Trustees and as vice chair of the School of Social Policy & Practice’s Board of Advisors.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
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