The Academy of Motion Pictures and 3 Other Nonprofits Landed $50 Million Gifts

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by The Chronicle:

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Haim and Cheryl Saban pledged $50 million for the new museum, whose permanent collection will be housed in Los Angeles’s historic May Company Building, which will be named for the donors.

Mr. Saban leads Saban Capital Group, a private-equity firm with media and entertainment holdings. He started out playing bass-guitar in a 1960s rock band called the Lions of Judah before moving into producing films and television.

Ms. Saban is a former Playboy model who went on to serve as senior adviser to the United States Mission to the United Nations. The couple have given extensively to nonprofits for many years.

Nova Southeastern University

Kiran and Pallavi Patel committed $50 million through their family foundation to establish a new College of Osteopathic Medicine. The couple are also providing real estate and land they own, valued at about $150 million. The university will pay rent on those properties for at least 20 years.

Dr. Kiran Patel is a cardiologist who owns the managed health-care companies, Freedom Health and Optimum Healthcare. His wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel is a pediatrician.

Oglethorpe University

William (Bill) Hammack Jr. and his wife, Diane, pledged $50 million through their foundation to establish a new business school, which will be named for him, and endow the university.

Mr. Hammack recently retired as chief executive of C.W. Matthews Contracting Company. He graduated from the university in 1973.

University of Kansas

David Booth committed $50 million for athletics, including improvements to Memorial Stadium and the construction of an indoor football practice facility.

Mr. Booth co-founded the investment firm Dimensional Fund Advisors. He is a university alumnus, having earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1968 and a master’s in business in 1969.

Asian Art Museum

Jerry Yang and his wife, Akiko Yamazaki, gave $25 million to expand the San Francisco museum.

Mr. Yang co-founded the search-engine company Yahoo! and the venture-capital firm AME Cloud Ventures. Ms. Yamazaki leads the museum’s Board of Trustees.

UJA Federation of New York

Jack and Shirley Silver pledged $20 million through their foundation for improvements to the organization’s Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds, a system of 12 day camps in New York State.

Mr. Silver founded SIAR Capital, an investment firm. Ms. Silver is a former social-studies teacher.

Museum of Flight

Betty Houston left more than $17 million to establish the Frank “Sam” and Betty Houston Education Endowment to provide educational opportunities to young people exploring careers in aerospace or science, technology, education and mathematics.

A portion of the bequest will also support the ongoing maintenance and exhibition of the museum’s vintage Boeing B-17 aircraft.

Ms. Houston died in 2016. She was the widow of the later Frank (Sam) Houston, a World War II pilot who flew B-17 bombers and later became an airline pilot for the now defunct Northwest Airlines.

Ms. Houston also worked for that airline. She took flying lessons when she was young but could not afford to get her license or attend college. Believing her career was limited because she was a woman, Ms. Houston stipulated that part of her bequest be used to increase opportunities for young women.

Bowdoin College

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings gave $5 million to create a program to help low-income and first-generation collegebound students.

The program, called Thrive, will also provide programs and services for these students throughout their time at Bowdoin.

Mr. Hastings graduated from the college in 1983. He and four educators will provide insights and support to the program’s leaders and meet on the Bowdoin campus annually to interact with the program’s students.

Rebuild Puerto Rico

Ric Elias pledged $5 million to create the new nonprofit, which aims to raise at least $10 million to help Puerto Rican survivors of Hurricane Maria.

Mr. Elias founded Red Ventures, a marketing company. He was born in Puerto Rico and has started several nonprofits. He is best known for his widely viewed TED Talk about surviving Flight 1549 (known as “miracle on the Hudson”).

Empire State Relief and Recover Effort

Actress Jennifer Lopez gave $1 million for hurricane survivors in Puerto Rico.

Ms. Lopez’s parents are Puerto Rican, and she has other relatives there.

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