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 Read more…
In 2011, financiers Russell Carson and James Simons jointly launched the New York Genome Center. This new consortium encourages hospitals, research groups, universities, and medical schools in the region to Read more…
Thanks to donor support, the Cleveland Clinic’s institute for eye and vision problems went from a hole in the ground to one of the top programs in the country in Read more…
Retired oil executive James Mulva and his wife Miriam took aim in 2016 at “widespread and difficult diseases that impact so many people and families.” They donated $50 million to Read more…
In one of his last gifts, biotech investor and philanthropist Bill Bowes made a 2016 gift to the University of California, San Francisco to establish special support for medical research Read more…
From his Facebook proceeds, Sean Parker donated $250 million in 2016 to found an unusual cancer institute. It will focus tightly on using the body’s own immune system to fight Read more…
Steve Cohen had made billions of dollars as a hedge-fund manager when his son, Robert, decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. There was no draft or financial necessity for Read more…
Philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad put up $100 million in 2003 to start a new type of biomedical research center: One that seeks to revolutionize clinical medicine by building deep Read more…
The Albright-Knox Museum in Buffalo, New York, is one of America’s superb art museums, with a particular strength in 7,000 modern works. But it has been desperately short of space Read more…
The latest in the ever-expanding empire of federal museums on the Washington, D.C., mall—the National Museum of African American History and Culture—opened in 2016. And the majority of the funds Read more…
A decade and a half after the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center, the site had rebounded remarkably. Dramatic new office towers had occupants, a much-improved transportation hub was Read more…
Jack Benaroya was a child of Lebanese immigrants who became one of the real-estate developers who built Seattle and the Pacific Northwest into an economic power. He and his wife Read more…
Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of America’s seminal artists and craftsmen, known for his shimmering leaded windows, rainbow-colored lamps, sparkling jewelry, sinuous curves of blown glass, and immersive environments like Read more…
Mary Louise Curtis Bok, daughter of the family that published the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies’ Home Journal, was a volunteer at a south Philadelphia settlement school devoted to “Americanization Read more…
At the University of Washington in Seattle (the city that is home to Microsoft, Amazon, and many other technology companies), computer science is the most sought-after major among the more Read more…
Lisa Rose and 11 other women in north Texas began meeting weekly to discuss their faith and how they could apply it to help “women in crisis” in their area. Read more…
George Lucas made billions of dollars exploring the public appetite for popular morality tales—stories of good and evil, youth versus age, the joy of friendship, the pleasures of ordinary life, Read more…
Chicago’s Lakefront Trail is the busiest in the country, with more than 100,000 locals walking or rolling down the 18-mile path on peak days. The fact that bikers and pedestrians Read more…
When he was five years old and seriously ill, Robert Kern received charitable medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic—under a program for helping the children of religious workers like his Read more…
Located halfway between Tampa and Orlando, Lakeland, Florida, is a city with a population of 100,000, but is headed toward a million in its fast-growing metro region within a generation. Read more…