$71-Million Bequeathed by Seattle Executive

By Matt Murray

The Nature Conservancy, CARE USA, and the Trust for Public Land have received more than $71-million from a Seattle woman who died in June.

Priscilla Bullitt Collins, a former chairwoman of King Broadcasting, provided $28.5-million apiece to the Nature Conservancy and CARE, while the Trust for Public Land received $14.1-million.

Ms. Collins told the Nature Conservancy, in Arlington, Va., to use a third of the money for preservation projects in the Pacific Northwest, a third for projects elsewhere in the United States, and a third for conservation efforts outside the United States. Ms. Collins explicitly requested, however, that the money not be used to purchase land in the United States.

She earmarked half of the $14.1-million bequest to the Trust for Public Land, in San Francisco, for conservation projects in the northwest United States and half to be used elsewhere around the country.

She asked CARE, in Atlanta, to use its money to educate young women in the developing world.

Priscilla Collins was the daughter of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, the founder of King Broadcasting. Before its sale in 1992, Ms. Collins chaired the company for 20 years. In 1990 Ms. Collins created a charitable trust, though she began contributing to it mainly after the sale of King Broadcasting two years later.

Ms. Collins had supported all three organizations in the past, giving about $4.4-million to the Nature Conservancy over her lifetime. The Trust for Public Land and CARE said she did not want their organizations to disclose the specifics of her previous support. Advisers to Ms. Collins said that, in addition to the money in the bequest, she had given more than $80-million to charity in the past decade.