Recipients of Doris Duke Fund’s Grants
Following are recipients of the first round of grants made by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation: Performing Arts American Dance Festival (Durham, N.C.): $1,826,000 to establish the Doris Duke Awards for New Work, an annual choreography award for dance companies, and to establish the Doris Duke…
Four years after tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s death, her billion-dollar foundation announces its first batch of grants After years of bitter legal battles, the $1.25-billion foundation created by the tobacco heiress Doris Duke has finally started doing what she had hoped it would: make grants for…
By MARINA DUNDJERSKI
Contributor
The very first time Bill Dieterle donned a Santa Claus suit, he was helping his father-in-law, a Santa-for-hire at a local garden center outside of Cleveland, who had asked Mr. Dieterle to fill in for him. While in costume, he was approached by a young cancer patient who asked “Santa” to make his…
Young Britons Giving Less to Charity
Fewer British households are giving to charity now than in the past two decades, although the average donation continues to increase faster than inflation, according to the latest statistical yearbook on Britain’s non-profit world. “Successive generations of young people are decreasingly likely to…
By Stephen G. Greene
Contributor
San Francisco Philanthropist Aids Cultural Institutions; Other Recent Gifts
The holiday gift-giving season has come early for several San Francisco cultural institutions, thanks to the largesse of Phyllis Wattis, a local philanthropist and arts patron. Mrs. Wattis has donated $20-million to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco -- which comprises the M. H. de Young…
Danforth Foundation Pledges Large Gift
The Danforth Foundation in St. Louis has pledged $100-million to nearby Washington University. The gift of Ralston Purina Company stock will be made over the next five years and will be used to endow programs in biology, biomedicine, and the social sciences. It is the largest gift that the…
Eisner Fund Receives Big Block of Stock
Michael Eisner, the Walt Disney Company’s chief executive, and his wife, Jane, have given one million shares of Disney stock to their recently created foundation. The contribution, worth more than $89-million as of last week, increases the Eisner Foundation’s endowment to about $100-million. The…
Tracking Big-Business Donations
Corporate giving is on the rise but percentage of profits donated is headed in the opposite direction Soaring profits at many of the nation’s biggest companies caused them to increase charitable donations by an average of 31 per cent last year, according to a new survey by the Conference Board.…
By Susan Gray
Contributor
Kids with troubled pasts are given a chance to turn their lives around at 17 year-round wilderness camps run by Eckerd Family Youth Alternatives, a Florida charity. Some of the youths are referred to the camps by their parents or by school counselors because of gang involvement, drug and alcohol…
Independent Sector Unveils New Drive
A national coalition of charities and foundations has announced a new public-education campaign that it hopes will increase Americans’ confidence in non-profit organizations. At its annual meeting last week, Independent Sector unveiled “Giving Voice to Your Heart,” an effort to persuade non-profit…
Alumni Fault Yale in Loss of Bass Gift
In an attempt to mend fences between Yale University and Lee Bass, members of the class of 1937 have sent a letter to Mr. Bass’s father absolving the younger Mr. Bass and blaming the university for errors that resulted in the Texas oil heir reneging on a $20-million pledge. But the missive may only…
Settlement Forces Artist’s Fund Payout
The foundation created by the late artist Joseph Cornell will have to make grants of more than $2-million in cash before the year 2001 to carry out Mr. Cornell’s charitable wishes, according to the terms of a settlement of a lawsuit in New York. The lawsuit was brought by Attorney General Dennis C.…
Bowdoin to Get $30-Million From Alumnus’s Investments
Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me., is counting on the money-management skills of one of its alumni to bring in $30-million by the end of the year. Stanley F. Druckenmiller, a managing partner of Soros Fund Management in New York, had set up a fund for the college in 1994 with $1.5-million of his…
Drake University Receives $50-Million to Support Campaign; Other Gifts
Drake University in Des Moines has received $50-million from Dwight D. Opperman, former chairman of West Publishing and a 1951 graduate of the university’s law school. His gift is the cornerstone of a recently announced $190-million campaign that will endow scholarships, libraries, academic…