For Billionaire Couple, Equal Partnership Fuels Passion for Philanthropy

In their art collecting, their philanthropy, and in just about everything else they do,

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Charles and Andrea Bronfman prefer to work as a team.

Part of their success together is that they share certain passions — as evidenced by the whimsical artwork that adorns their Park Avenue offices here. But the billionaire Canadian businessman and his wife of 20 years also appreciate how each other’s style complements their own — which, they say, works especially well in their giving.

“He is far more patient than I am,” Mrs. Bronfman says of her husband, who sits beside her.

“She is far more tenacious than I am,” Mr. Bronfman quickly interjects, unwilling to accept her compliment without pointing out her own strengths. “She’s much better on follow-through.”

“But I don’t have the vision, and I can’t follow through if there is no vision,” she protests.

Although much of the couple’s wealth comes from Mr. Bronfman’s side of the family, everyone who knows Andrea, 54, and Charles, 68, say their philanthropy is an equal partnership. In fact, the umbrella organization that distributes their grants is called the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies.

“I can’t imagine the Bronfmans except as a couple,” says Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, which has received about $4-million from the Bronfmans. “It is a very important way in which they operate.”

“It is clear to me that they are a team,” agrees Stephen H. Hoffman, president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland. “It is apparent that they talk about a lot of things together, and it is clear when you have one involved, you have the other one.”

The Bronfmans’ teamwork in philanthropy extends beyond just giving money away. This week Mr. Bronfman takes over as chairman of United Jewish Communities, a new charitable organization that was formed through the merger of three prominent Jewish fund-raising groups.

Andrea Bronfman doesn’t have a formal role in the group, and she shies away from appearing before large crowds in an official capacity. But she has been joining her husband in recent months as he has crisscrossed Canada and the United States to learn more about the concerns that young Jewish leaders have about the future of philanthropy.

Jewish philanthropy has always been a significant interest for Charles and Andrea Bronfman. In particular, their giving seeks to strengthen relations between Jews in Israel and those in the rest of the world.

In recent years, they have developed a more formal presence in Israel, including setting up an office in Jerusalem.

Mrs. Bronfman has strong personal ties to Israel because she spent summers there with her family as a young woman, and her parents had retired there.

After Mrs. Bronfman’s parents died, Mr. Bronfman wanted to sell his wife’s parents’ house, but she wanted to keep it and use it as their own home.

Mr. Bronfman relented, and agreed to spend three months of the year with her in Israel, typically in the summer. As the couple has spent more time there, they say that personal connection has helped them understand the country better.

One of their top philanthropic priorities is a project called Birthright Israel. The Bronfmans, along with the philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, a retired Wall Street money manager, have pledged to raise $300-million for a fund that will allow every North American Jew aged 15 to 26 to go on a free 10-day study tour of Israel.

The Bronfmans contributed $10-million this year, one of the largest grants they made, to Birthright Israel. They plan to give another $15-million themselves, and they also hope to raise additional funds from other individual philanthropists, foundations, Jewish federations, and the government of Israel.

The Bronfmans hope that such an opportunity will serve as a rite of passage that helps young Jews learn about Israel, meet young Israelis, and develop a stronger sense of Jewish identity as a result.

Though they make many joint decisions, the Bronfmans also pursue their own personal philanthropic interests.

In Canada, Mr. Bronfman’s homeland, the billionaire is most well known for his efforts to promote Canadian culture and history.

His interest began after he was awarded the Order of Canada in 1981, and realized that many of his fellow citizens knew little about their country’s heritage and heroes.

Hoping to rectify that, the Bronfmans spent $8-million to produce 60 “Heritage Minutes,” one-minute videotapes that re-enact important events in Canadian history. They are shown on television and in movie theaters and are seen by an estimated 23 million Canadians each year.

Mrs. Bronfman is the co-chair and a passionate supporter of Beth Hatefutsoth, a museum in Tel Aviv that tells the history of Jews outside of Israel. She was inspired by her work to help develop a traveling exhibit about Jewish life in Canada, a project that took nearly 10 years from start to finish.

Mrs. Bronfman is Mr. Bronfman’s second wife. Each has adult children from a previous marriage, whom they expect to carry on the Bronfman family’s philanthropic tradition.

What has made the Bronfmans stand out among other grant makers, says Mr. Reinharz of Brandeis University, is the approach they take.

“They have limited priorities,” he says. “They are very focused, they know what they want to do, and they concentrate on those areas and become real experts.” They aren’t shy of underwriting long-term projects, he notes, and they think like investors, asking to see a business plan.

“They think ahead of the curve,” he observes. “They look at the communities they fund, and they think, ‘What might be the priorities of the future? That has yielded some really wonderful results.”