Jack Horner
Though he lacks academic credentials, Jack Horner has revolutionized paleontology with the help of a gaggle of independent-minded donors. After flunking out of college seven times then serving a tour Read more…
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Healing Horned Owls and Breeding Bugs
Oracle software chief Larry Ellison has long shown philanthropic interest in wildlife. Now he is taking an active role in sustaining threatened animals. He is making a major donation, estimated Read more…
Creative Approach to Disease Research Pays Off
On the same day in August that he and three other Johns Hopkins University researchers published in Science their breakthrough explanation of sources of ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Read more…
Young Americans Center for Financial Education
In 1984, Bill Daniels read an article in the Denver newspaper about a fifth-grade class that couldn’t get funding to start a business. A successful cable-TV entrepreneur, Daniels decided there Read more…
Helping Transitions to Freedom
“When I was working with the Slovaks, I realized there are no books written, no roadmap, for a country to transition from an authoritarian government to a free society. Studying Read more…
Gestating an Iran Deal
President Obama’s 2015 decision to end sanctions on Iran in return for promises of increased nuclear accountability did not emerge on its own. It grew directly out of years of Read more…
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
In the 1980s, researchers uncovered the genetic cause of cystic fibrosis. But by the late 1990s only incremental improvements in treatment were in place, despite decades of investments in researchers Read more…
Doubling Wisconsin’s Endowed Chairs
John and Tashia Morgridge were high-school sweethearts in Wauwatosa, then attended the University of Wisconsin. John later led Cisco Systems from startup with 34 employees into one of the country’s Read more…
A Record for Catholic-school Scholarships
In September 2015, the Inner-city Scholarship Fund run by the Archdiocese of New York announced the largest-ever U.S. gift to Catholic schooling. Christine and Stephen Schwarzman gave a record $40 Read more…
Art of Native America to Indiana
The Eiteljorg Museum was founded in 1989 by Indianapolis philanthropist and businessman Harrison Eiteljorg, and has quickly grown into one of the country’s top repositories of high-quality Native American art Read more…
Expansion of Catholic Schooling
The first Catholic school in America was opened in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1606. In New Orleans, the Ursuline Academy opened in 1727 and is still operating today as the Read more…
Classical Music Popularized in San Francisco
The San Francisco Symphony was the first orchestra to feature radio broadcasts—in 1926, funded by local philanthropists. Almost 80 years later, in 2005, another generation of philanthropists (Evelyn and Walter Read more…
Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Biomedical Research Center
Investors Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey are interested in the new medical specialty of regenerative medicine—which is developing ways to repair, replace, or regrow body tissues that are not functioning. Read more…
Quick Action Against Ebola
Nearly 5,000 residents were killed when an epidemic of the dread disease Ebola swept west African countries in 2014. Philanthropists were among the quickest to understand the importance of nipping Read more…
Fighting Back Against Allergies
Allergies are both a common nuisance—with an estimated 60 million sufferers in the U.S.—and sometimes a mortal threat. The manifestations of allergic reaction include asthma, drug allergies, bee sting reactions, Read more…
Tamping Down Childhood Obesity
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, America’s third-largest private grantmaker, with a strong focus on health issues, announced a half-billion-dollar commitment in 2007 to research how fast-rising childhood obesity could be Read more…
Doerr Institute for New Leaders
Experts say that most of the capacity to lead people is learned, not innate. And, typically, about 70 percent of what helps people become effective leaders is learned through experience Read more…
Flexibly Incubating New Ideas at Caltech
Ron and Maxine Linde are long-time supporters of the California Institute of Technology, having trained there before building their own successful industrial firm. In 2015 they presented Caltech with an Read more…
Targeting First-generation College Candidates
There are many students with high academic potential growing up in families that lack the means or confidence to steer their child toward a top college. Of the 30,000 low-income Read more…
The 74
With strong donor support, former CNN host Campbell Brown created a nonprofit news site in 2015 focused on reporting and analysis about public-school reform. “Less than half of our students Read more…