$125 Million From Paul Allen Announced; Spelman College Lands $30 Million: Gifts Roundup

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Allen Institute

Last July, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen pledged $125 million to create the Allen Institute for Immunology, a new division within his eponymous scientific-research institute, which also houses divisions in cell and brain science

The institute announced the gift last week. Allen founded the umbrella organization, the Allen Institute, in 2003 and after that added a number of divisions. This latest immunology arm is dedicated to studying the human immune system.

A prolific donor, Allen had given away more than $2 billion to nonprofits before he died in October and had appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors every year from 2002 through 2017.

Spelman College

Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, donated $30 million to help build the Center for Innovation and the Arts.

Stryker is an heiress to the Stryker Corporation fortune, a medical-products company founded by her grandfather. She has been a Spelman trustee since 1997. Johnston is chairman of Greenleaf Companies, a holding company for Greenleaf Trust, a venture-capital company, and a hotel division.

University of Kentucky

Mira Ball gave $10 million to back the Don and Mira Ball Endowed Scholarship Program and pay for dozens of undergraduate and graduate scholarships.

Ball is the widow of Don Ball, who died in March. The couple met as students at the university and together founded Ball Homes, a homebuilder in Lexington, Ky., in 1959. The couple also started Barkham, a nonprofit construction company that built facilities at cost for local charities.

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Carl and Ashley Ryden donated $2 million to establish the Ryden Program for Innovation and Leadership in Artificial Intelligence, which aims to teach high-school students how to design and use artificial intelligence and to develop their understanding of its technological merits, its place in society, and the ethical considerations its application raise.

Carl Ryden, who graduated from the public high school, co-founded and is chief executive of PrecisionLender, a company that makes software for commercial banks. He previously worked at IBM, where he was part of the team that developed the first ThinkPad laptop.

The Rydens are the latest of a growing number of wealthy donors who are giving big gifts to A.I. programs. Citing his concerns about the use of artificial intelligence today and in the future, Ryden said in a new release that he and his wife hope their gift helps future leaders use the technology responsibly and for the greater good.

“We absolutely need to build leaders who are capable of driving [the] future in a way that gets us to a better place as a society,” said Carl Ryden.

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