Health-Care System Gets $40-Million Pledge From Indianapolis Businessman and Wife
By Caroline Bermudez
Contributor
July 24, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
How much: $40-million pledge
Who gave it: Sidney and Lois Eskenazi. Mr. Eskenazi founded Sandor Development Company, a real-estate company firm in Indianapolis.
Who got it: Wishard Foundation, the fund-raising arm of Wishard Health Services, a public health-care system in Indianapolis, which will be renamed after the donors.
What the gift will support: A new hospital that will open in December 2013 and be named for the donors.
How the gift came about: In April, Lisa Harris, the hospital system’s chief executive, and Ernest Vargo, the head of the fund-raising unit, both flew to Florida to meet with the couple. Wishard officials put together a presentation for them in May, and Mr. Eskenazi says it “knocked me out.”
Why the donors gave: Mr. Eskenazi says he and his wife planned to leave a charitable endowment upon their deaths, when they die, but when they heard about the hospital’s plans, he says they decided: “Why wait til we’re dead? If we can do what we’d like to do after we’re gone, bite the bullet and do it now.”
