After Sanford Diller put together one of the most successful companies developing apartments in northern California, he and his wife Helen Diller became energetic philanthropists. They were long-time supporters of the medical faculties at the University of California, San Francisco (whose facilities include the hospital where she was born). From 2003 until Helen’s death in 2015 the couple made gifts totaling more than $150 million to build up the university’s cancer center on a new campus. Then in 2017 their foundation offered a $500 million grant to support UCSF’s medical education and research. That tied for the second largest gift ever to a university, exceeded only by Gordon Moore’s $600 million donation to the California Institute of Technology in 2001. Campus officials said they particularly appreciated the relatively unrestricted nature of the offering, which will allow them to apportion funds efficiently to emerging priorities.
- UCSF announcement, ucsf.edu/news/2017/01/405476/largest-ever-gift-ucsf-honors-philanthropist-helen-diller