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Anonymous—Not!
by Willow Duttge
November 2008 Issue
November 2008 Issue
Everyone—make that everyone in certain circles—knows that Michael Bloomberg donates anonymously to social-service and cultural organizations in New York City. Sumner Redstone is known to be an anonymous giver too. We tapped numerous philanthropy executives, including Melissa Berman, head of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and Harvey Dale, founding president of the Atlantic Philanthropies, for some clues to who else is behind some big anonymous donations of the past two years. Then we went out on a limb and made a few guesses of our own.
Gift: $150 million to the University of California–San Francisco’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Clue: It’s probably someone who has a tie to Northern California and has been affected by cancer.
Our guess: Steve Jobs. The Apple co-founder has battled pancreatic cancer, and this top medical center isn’t far from his office.
Gift: $100 million to the University of Chicago for financial aid to undergraduate students.
Clue: The school has said the donor graduated in the 1980s. The financial-aid stipulation suggests that the person may have come from modest means.
Our guess: Jon Winkelried, president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs. He made nearly $27 million in 2007, he’s an alumnus from the early ’80s, and he received financial aid when he attended the school.
Gift: $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Clue: Experts say this one should be easy. After all, the median income of Erie County is less than $40,000, and the donor is said to be a county resident.
Our guess: The rumor mill (and Wall Street Journal wealth blogger Robert Frank) has pointed to the H.O. Hirt family. Hirt, the founder of Erie Indemnity Co., bequeathed his fortune (with a current value of
$2.7 billion) to numerous descendants. Why the anonymity? Maybe it’s because the heirs have been fighting over the money.
Gift: $90 million to the New World Symphony orchestral academy in Miami Beach, to help build it a new home.
Clue: It’s a Miami arts patron.
Our guess: We’re thinking Carnival Corp. C.E.O. and chairman Micky Arison’s family pledged the sum. Micky’s father, Ted Arison, co-founded the symphony. Why the anonymity? Because the family has such a deep reservoir of funds that other potential donors could decide the organization needs no other major supporters. That happened to the San Diego Symphony after Irwin and Joan Jacobs made a $100 million gift.
Additional sources: John Taylor, principal, Advancement Solutions Consulting Group; Noel Salinger, V.P. for medical development, George Washington University; Howie Pearson, director of planned giving and development legal counsel, Stanford University Office of Development.
Clue: It’s probably someone who has a tie to Northern California and has been affected by cancer.
Our guess: Steve Jobs. The Apple co-founder has battled pancreatic cancer, and this top medical center isn’t far from his office.
Gift: $100 million to the University of Chicago for financial aid to undergraduate students.
Clue: The school has said the donor graduated in the 1980s. The financial-aid stipulation suggests that the person may have come from modest means.
Our guess: Jon Winkelried, president and co-chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs. He made nearly $27 million in 2007, he’s an alumnus from the early ’80s, and he received financial aid when he attended the school.
Gift: $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Clue: Experts say this one should be easy. After all, the median income of Erie County is less than $40,000, and the donor is said to be a county resident.
Our guess: The rumor mill (and Wall Street Journal wealth blogger Robert Frank) has pointed to the H.O. Hirt family. Hirt, the founder of Erie Indemnity Co., bequeathed his fortune (with a current value of
$2.7 billion) to numerous descendants. Why the anonymity? Maybe it’s because the heirs have been fighting over the money.
Gift: $90 million to the New World Symphony orchestral academy in Miami Beach, to help build it a new home.
Clue: It’s a Miami arts patron.
Our guess: We’re thinking Carnival Corp. C.E.O. and chairman Micky Arison’s family pledged the sum. Micky’s father, Ted Arison, co-founded the symphony. Why the anonymity? Because the family has such a deep reservoir of funds that other potential donors could decide the organization needs no other major supporters. That happened to the San Diego Symphony after Irwin and Joan Jacobs made a $100 million gift.
Additional sources: John Taylor, principal, Advancement Solutions Consulting Group; Noel Salinger, V.P. for medical development, George Washington University; Howie Pearson, director of planned giving and development legal counsel, Stanford University Office of Development.
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