Hewlett Pledges $400-Million to Stanford; Grant Is Largest Ever to a U.S. University

By ZIYA SERDAR TUMGOREN

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has made a $400-million pledge to Stanford University. The grant, which is the largest ever committed by a foundation to an American university, will support undergraduate education and add to an endowment for the humanities and sciences.

“This gift is a tribute to my father,” said Walter Hewlett, foundation chairman and son of the electronics pioneer, who died in January. “It honors his lifetime of philanthropy, his lifelong devotion to Stanford, and his passionate belief in the value of a liberal-arts education.”

Three-quarters of the $400-million grant will be used for endowed professorships and graduate fellowships in the School of Humanities, and $100-million will go to the Campaign for Undergraduate Education to support scholarships and undergraduate programs.

Walter Hewlett said that plans for a sizable gift were under discussion for almost a year before his father’s death. “The trustees of the foundation felt that if he had been able, he would have made this kind of gift to Stanford,” his son said. “We think of this gift as being like a final bequest to Stanford from Bill Hewlett.”

Nearly all of Mr. Hewlett’s financial assets — which consist largely of Hewlett-Packard and Agilent stock — were left to the foundation in his bequest. Those assets are now estimated to be worth $4-billion, so Hewlett will probably become one of the nation’s very wealthiest foundations after the estate is settled. At the end of 2000, the Hewlett Foundation was worth $3.7-billion, and gave $135-million in grants; in 2001, the foundation projects it will give $225-million.

The gift to Stanford, which will be disbursed over four or five years, is part of a “strategic ramp-up process” in giving and will not affect funds available for new programs, said Paul Brest, the former dean of Stanford University’s law school who took over the presidency of the Hewlett Foundation last year. Instead of awarding large sums of money all at once, Mr. Brest said, the foundation will gradually increase giving over the next few years in expectation of its increased endowment.

William Hewlett, along with fellow Stanford alumnus David Packard, founded the Hewlett-Packard Company in 1936. Together, the two men and their foundations have contributed almost $400-million to Stanford University, in addition to the gift announced this month.

Before the Hewlett gift, the Annenberg Foundation’s gift of $125-million to the University of Pennsylvania was the largest sum given by a private foundation to a single American college or university.