New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Gives $100 Million to Fight Antisemitism

Kraft’s donation matches a $100 million grant the Rales Foundation awarded to the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

OSWIECIM, POLAND: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft solemnly visits Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest German Nazi-operated concentration camp during World War II, on April 18, 2023, in Oswiecim, Poland. The March of the Living, an annual educational program, brings together Jewish students from around the world to silently march from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II Birkenau, paying tribute to the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust. Through this powerful program, students gain a deeper understanding of the atrocities of the past and the importance of preventing them from happening again. (Artur Widak, NurPhoto, Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images

December 11, 2023 | Read Time: 4 minutes

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Foundation to Combat Antisemitism

Billionaire Robert Kraft pledged $100 million to this nonprofit that he founded in 2019 to increase the public’s understanding about the spread of modern-day antisemitism and help people fight such hatred.

Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots football team, said in a news release that he is donating the money to match a $100 million grant from the Rales Foundation. The late Norman and Ruth Rales, who founded Mid-South Building Supply Company, a home-building products distributor, founded the Washington grant maker.

Kraft founded and leads the Kraft Group, a holding company in Foxborough, Mass., that invests in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment, and real-estate development. He has owned the New England Patriots football team since 1994, and in 1996 he founded the New England Revolution, a professional soccer team.

One of several wealthy donors who have given millions to fight antisemitism in recent years, Kraft has now donated at least $125 million to the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

KU Endowment

Brad Garlinghouse pledged $35 million to support the construction of the Gateway District, a University of Kansas campus area that will act as hub for the institution’s athletics department. When it’s completed, the Gateway District will include a renovated football stadium, a hotel, and a conference center.

Garlinghouse is CEO of Ripple, a blockchain-based digital-payment network and cryptocurrency exchange. He previously held executive posts at several other technology companies including Yahoo! and AOL, and at Silver Lake, a private-equity firm that invests primarily in technology companies. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the university in 1993.

University of California at San Diego

Laurie McGrath pledged $25 million through her McGrath Family Foundation to back the construction of a new outpatient center at the UC San Diego Health–Hillcrest Medical Campus, which will be named the McGrath Family Foundation Outpatient Pavilion. It is scheduled for completion in 2025.

McGrath leads McGrath Development, a real-estate-development business in San Diego, and is an heir to the C.W. McGrath fortune. Her late parents, Bill and Carlee McGrath, founded C.W. McGrath, an engineering contractor and excavation and construction company, in San Diego in 1937. Laurie McGrath and her mother established the foundation in 1986. It supports a range of causes in the United States and abroad.

Community Preservation Corporation

MacKenzie Scott gave $15 million through her Yield Giving Fund to support this community-development financial institution that provides financing for affordable-housing programs in underserved neighborhoods. The gift is unrestricted, and officials at the nonprofit indicated in a news release that they plan to use the money to expand its programs.

Scott is a novelist who has given more than $14 billion to more than 1,600 nonprofits over the last three years. Like Community Preservation Corporation, most of her grantees are using at least some of the money they’ve received from Scott to expand their programs to reach more people in need.

Scott is one of the wealthiest women in the world. Her estimated $38 billion fortune comes from stock she holds in the online retailing giant Amazon, which she helped to found with her first husband, Jeff Bezos, nearly 30 years ago.

Converse University

Ernestine Raclin left $10.3 million to support a range of programs, including an endowment to boost faculty and staff salaries, and to renovate residence halls and other campus buildings. Her first husband, O.C. Carmichael Jr., served as president of the university from 1956 to 1960.

Raclin served as chairman of 1st Source Bank and 1st Source Corporation, in South Bend, Ind., for more than 20 years. She was the first woman in the United States to chair a United Way campaign and to serve on the board of United Way of America. Raclin died in July at 95.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Chuck Lorre gave $10 million through his Chuck Lorre Family Foundation to support research education for high-school and college students from under-served communities throughout the greater Los Angeles area through the Chuck Lorre Research Scholars Program.

Students in the program participate in 10 weeks of paid summer laboratory research after their freshman or sophomore year of college at either their current university, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, or a research institution of their choice. They also receive mentorship and career guidance from the director of the program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Lorre is a Hollywood writer and producer of the television sitcoms Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and Roseanne, among others.

To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.