Jonathan and Mindy Gray Give $25 Million for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Research

A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:

University of California at San Diego

Denny Sanford has given $100 million to start a new institute that will study the neurobiology of compassion, with the aim of increasing emotional support for doctors who feel burned out or suicidal about the nature of their work.

The T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion is the second major institution that Sanford has created at the university. His previous $100 million gift in 2013 established the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center.

A billionaire banker who is a regular fixture on the Philanthropy 50, Sanford has shown an interest in recent years in ways to cultivate empathy and human connections. Last year he gave $100 million to National University, also in San Diego, to foster social-emotional learning programs for young children in preschool through sixth grade.

Gray Foundation

Jonathan and Mindy Gray have given $25 million through their foundation for research on genetic mutations that can lead to breast and ovarian cancer. The money will be shared by seven multidisciplinary research teams at the Cleveland Clinic, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Weill Cornell Medicine, and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Jonathan Gray is president and chief operating officer at the private-equity firm Blackstone in New York. The couple previously gave $55 million to the University of Pennsylvania’s Basser Center for BRCA, also for breast-cancer research.

Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles

An anonymous gift of $25 million will strengthen the hospital’s Neurological Institute and expand its capacity in interventional radiology. A portion of the money will support the hospital’s new multidisciplinary Neurological Institute Outpatient Center, which will create a clinical hub for neurologists, neurosurgeons, developmental pediatricians, and other health-care providers who treat pediatric patients with neurological conditions.

University of Chicago

An anonymous donor has committed $25 million to support the university’s Odyssey Scholarship Program, which provides undergraduate financial aid for international students. The same donor previously gave the scholarship program $10 million.

Henry Ford Allegiance Health Foundation

Georgia Fojtasek and her husband, Travis, gave $1 million to the Detroit-area hospital system where she has worked for 30 years. Georgia Fojtasek is retiring after 25 years as president and CEO of Henry Ford Allegiance Health; she joined the hospital, then known as Foote Health System, as vice president and chief operating officer in 1989.

The couple’s gift is to support six programs, including one that will give assistance to hospital staff members with emergency financial need; a breast-milk donor bank; and a bereavement-support group for patients who have suffered miscarriages, stillbirth, or infant death.

University of California at Los Angeles

Jackson Yang has given $1 million through the J. Yang and Family Foundation to the UCLA Asia Pacific Center. The gift will strengthen its Taiwan studies program and create scholarships for students who previously attended Taiwanese high schools and universities.

Yang is the owner of Seville Classics, which makes home-organization products in Torrance, Calif. He was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the United States in his early 40s. Last year, he gave $1 million to endow the university’s Taiwan studies program.

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