A Brother’s Suicide Prompts $20 Million Gift to Children’s Wisconsin

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

Children’s Wisconsin

The hospital in Milwaukee has received $20 million from Jeff Yabuki and his family to support pediatric emotional and mental well-being. The gift will pay to place trained therapists alongside pediatricians in all of its primary-care settings and urgent-care clinics to identify mental-health issues as a part of routine wellness visits.

Until last year, Yabuki was the CEO of Fiserv, a Wisconsin company that provides financial services and payments technology for banks, businesses, and consumers. He made this donation in honor of his brother, Craig, who died by suicide in 2017 at age 52. In a video statement, Yabuki says his brother had suffered from depression and anxiety since childhood, but his illness went undiagnosed and untreated for many years. He says he hopes his gift will increase families’ access to therapeutic services and enable them to seek immediate care when mental- and behavioral-health problems first develop in their children.

Bronx High School of Science

Stanley Manne has given a partial challenge gift of $18 million to his alma mater, a public magnet school in New York. His gift will pay to build the Manne Institute, a new program and facility that will house professional-level science labs on its campus in the Bronx. Of the total, $10 million will match other donors’ gifts to science education and learning opportunities at the school.

Manne graduated from Bronx Science in 1952. He went on to become owner and president of Brawny Plastics, a manufacturer of industrial plastic bags and other consumer products.

University of California at San Diego

Daniel and Phyllis Epstein have committed $10 million through their foundation to build an amphitheater. The open-air venue will be accessible by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, and many performances in dance, theater, and music will be offered at no cost, making them more available to both students and the greater community. The Epstein Family Amphitheater is expected to open in the fall of 2022.

Daniel Epstein founded the ConAm Group, a real-estate development and investment company in San Diego.

Mount Sinai Health System

Steven and Alexandra Cohen have given $2.1 million through their foundation to support the hospital’s Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research, housed within its Department of Psychiatry. The gift will back a large study of combat veterans who receive the psychedelic drug MDMA over two or three sessions as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has sponsored the study.

Steven Cohen founded SAC Capital Advisors, a hedge fund in Stamford, Conn., that was later renamed Point72 Asset Management. This is the second recent gift of this nature from the couple. In March, the Cohens gave $1 million to the California Institute of Integral Studies to train therapists in the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs like ketamine, MDMA, LSD, and ayahuasca to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental-health conditions.

University Hospitals

Michael and Ellen Feuer gave $2 million to establish the Feuer Innovation Accelerator fund at the Cleveland hospital group. The fund will be used at the discretion of its CEO to advance promising research and develop new tools to improve its delivery of care.

Michael Feuer co-founded OfficeMax and served 16 years as its CEO. After OfficeMax sold to Boise Cascade for $1.3 billion in 2003, he became CEO of Max-Ventures, a private-equity and consulting firm in Cleveland.

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