A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Burnham Center for Community Advancement
Malin and Roberta Burnham gave $20 million to support the San Diego think tank focused on increasing civic engagement in the city and improving the quality of life of all residents. They helped found the organization two years ago.
Malin Burnham, a 95-year-old competitive sailor, retired as chairman of John Burnham & Company Insurance and Burnham Real Estate, which his grandfather John Burhman founded in 1891. Malin Burnham joined the company in 1949 and served in various roles there until the company was acquired in 2008 by the international real-estate giant Cushman & Wakefield. He served as a vice chairman and chairman emeritus at Cushman & Wakefield until stepping down in 2022.
Harvard University
Billionaire financier Kenneth Griffin gave $300 million through his Kenneth C. Griffin Charitable Fund to Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences to support a wide range of teaching, research, and other programs. Some of the money will go toward financial aid. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences is home to Harvard’s undergraduate program, all of the university’s Ph.D. programs, and 40 academic departments in the liberal-arts and science fields. To recognize his decades-long support of the university, Harvard officials plan to name the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for him.
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 when he gave Harvard University $150 million, primarily to support financial aid. He graduated from Harvard in 1989.
University of Rochester
Evans and Susanna Lam pledged $15.7 million to support several programs within the Simon Business School and the Eastman School of Music and elsewhere on campus. Of the total, about $10 million will endow scholarships at the business school and within the College of Arts, Sciences & Engineering and support a number of other programs throughout the university.
In addition, the Lams are directing $3.5 million of the total to establish the Lam e.Hub of Undergraduate Business Engagement; $1 million to establish the Evans Lam Research Professor of Music and Medicine at Eastman, a post aimed at bolstering research within the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine program; and $500,000 to launch the Lam Caring and Agile Resources for Emergencies Fund, which will support undergraduates across the university who need immediate assistance paying for housing, food, travel and other expenses.
Evans Lam is managing director of wealth management and senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services. A financial expert who has advised the State Council of China on monetary reform, he immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong with only $180 to his name to attend the university on scholarship. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA there in 1983 and 1984, respectively, and currently serves on the university’s Board of Trustees. He worked for Citigroup Smith Barney for 17 years and at Bankers Trust Company earlier in his career. Susanna Lam is a retired accountant and performer of Chinese opera.
National Academy Foundation
Robert Smith pledged $15 million to support career-readiness programs in public and private high schools and to expand programs geared toward students of color in underserved areas of the southeastern United States. The nonprofit operates programs that aim to prepare high-school students for college and careers.
Smith founded and leads Vista Equity Partners, an Austin, Tex., private-equity firm that invests in fledgling technology businesses. He has given extensively to charity in recent years, especially to efforts to reduce college-loan debt among students at historically Black colleges and universities. He has appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors four times since 2005.
Bowdoin College
Kenneth and Kathryn Chenault gave $2 million to establish and endow the Herman S. Dreer Leadership Fellowship, which will be awarded to individuals from underserved backgrounds who rose to prominence in business, technology, government, the arts, the military, and other disciplines.
Dreer fellows will visit Bowdoin several times, deliver a public lecture, and engage with students, alumni, and others through mentoring, at campus events, and in other settings. The Chenaults named the fellowship for Herman Dreer, who was the second Black man to graduate from Bowdoin. Kenneth Chenault wrote his history honors thesis, “The Blackman at Bowdoin,” about Dreer, who was a university administrator, Baptist minister, and civil-rights leader.
Kenneth Chenault is chairman and managing director of the venture-capital firm General Catalyst. He served as chairman and CEO of American Express from 2001 to 2018. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin in 1973.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
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