California Foundation Receives $200-Million Bequest

The California Community Foundation has received a $200-million gift from a donor whose vast wealth was a secret even to her family, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The donor, Joan Palevsky, died in March at age 80. She made her money by investing wisely — and quietly — after she received a substantial divorce settlement.

She had donated regularly to causes such as the Rape Foundation and Amnesty International, but the $200-million bequest shocked the community foundation.

Ms. Palevsky did not specify how the money should be used, although the foundation said it would create an endowment to support causes she held dear, such as civil liberties and public education.

A 1997 newspaper article about the foundation’s efforts to raise $200,000 for inner-city-school textbooks, which was published while Ms. Palevsky was revising her will, prompted her to donate the money to the community foundation.

The gift increases the foundation’s assets to $1-billion.