November 13, 2018 | Read Time: 4 minutes
A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle.
Chan Zuckerberg Donor-Advised Fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan gave Facebook stock valued at nearly $213.6 million to their donor-advised fund, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission document they filed late last week. They have supported education, health, and other causes through their DAF in previous years.
Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook, and Chan is a pediatrician who runs the couple’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a limited-liability corporation the couple started in 2015 through which they donate to charity, participate in public advocacy, and invest.
They have given extensively to a number of causes over the years and have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of big donors four times since 2010.
Harvard Medical School
Len Blavatnik pledged $200 million through his family foundation to speed up the discovery of new medical treatments and hire additional data scientists, computational biologists, bioengineers, and others. The money will also support other programs as well as collaborative research between the medical school and other university departments.
Blavatnik founded Access Industries, which has holdings in chemicals and natural resources, media and telecommunications, and real estate. He has given extensively and appeared on the 2010 Philanthropy 50.
Boston University
Frederick Pardee gave $25 million to support the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and pay for a new building. Five years ago, he donated $25 million to endow the school.
Pardee founded an investment firm that owns and operates real estate in Los Angeles. He is a former economist who worked as a research analyst at the RAND Corporation from 1957 to 1971.
He earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the university in 1954.
Marshall University
Brad and Alys Smith donated $25 million to the Lewis College of Business for a new building and to expand programs.
Brad Smith leads the Silicon Valley software company Intuit and graduated from Marshall in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Alys Smith is a lawyer.
University of Houston
Andy and Andrea Diamond gave $17 million to establish a scholarship program that will provide financial, academic, mentoring, and other support for students aging out of the foster-care system.
Andy Diamond is a Houston investor who owns Metals Supply Company, a steel distributor.
Louisiana State University
Herman and Connie Soong pledged $10.1 million to endow five programs at the School of Veterinary Medicine.
The money will go toward a fund for the care of injured and homeless animals; to support the Dr. Herman C. Soong Shelter Medicine Program; to establish a scholarship program for minority students in the veterinary school; and to create an oncology professorship and a veterinary forensic-sciences program.
Herman Soong is an assistant professor of adult psychiatry and forensic neuropsychiatry at the Tulane University School of Medicine.
Semper Fi Fund
Bob and Renee Parsons committed $10 million through their foundation to match gifts from other donors up to that amount. The money will back programs the help injured and ill members of the Armed Forces and their families.
Bob Parsons, a Vietnam veteran, founded GoDaddy, a web-hosting company and internet-domain registrar, and Parsons Software. The Parsonses are longtime annual donors to the Semper Fi Fund and other charities that help veterans, youths, the homeless, and other causes.
Vanderbilt University
William and Jennifer Frist gave $10 million to create and endow the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at the School of Engineering.
The center’s work will focus on research and development to understand the capabilities of people with autism and find ways that businesses can benefit from their talents and skills.
William Frist is a Nashville investor and the son of Thomas Frist Jr., a billionaire businessman who co-founded Hospital Corporation of America. Jennifer Frist earned a bachelor of science degree from Vanderbilt in 1993.
Dallas Museum of Art
Donald and Beverly Freeman donated $4 million to establish the Freeman Family Exhibition Endowment, which will support special exhibitions across the museum’s collection. As part of the gift, the couple will choose one special show each year and provide it with significant support.
Donald Freeman founded the Freeman Companies, an event-services business in Dallas. Beverly Freeman has been a docent at the museum since 1978 and has served on its Board of Trustees for 25 years.
In 2015, the couple gave the museum $1.5 million to establish an endowment benefiting its education programs.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated throughout the week.
