Helen Diller Foundation Gives UC-San Francisco Second $500 Million Pledge

The Helen Diller Foundation has pledged $500 million to the University of California at San Francisco for the second year in a row. This latest grant will go toward building a new hospital at UCSF Medical Center Parnassus Heights, set to open in 2030. The medical center will be named for Ms. Diller, who died in 2015.

The foundation gave $500 million last January to endow faculty and staff and to back programs for students across medical disciplines. About $100 million of that grant was unrestricted, meaning the institution could use the money for any purpose as long as it advanced biomedical research in some way.

Diller and her husband, Sanford, who died last week, built Prometheus Real Estate Group into one of San Francisco’s biggest privately owned real-estate developers, making them billionaires.

In total, the foundation has given the university more than $1.1 billion over the years, a commitment that reflects Diller’s involvement with the institution.

She also gave large gifts over the years to arts, education, Jewish, and science groups in the Bay Area, created programs for teenagers, and helped renovate local children’s parks and playgrounds.