Posted on January 5, 2003

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The Year in Review: Newsmakers of 2002

In a year marked by geopolitical tensions, a slumping economy, and the passing of two giants of philanthropy — John W. Gardner and Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg — the philanthropic sector nevertheless saw some of the largest charitable gifts ever awarded.

Gardner, the founder of the nonpartisan citizens' lobbying organization Common Cause, died in February at the age of 89. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Gardner also served as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Johnson administration; and as founding chairman of Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits, foundations, and corporations dedicated to strengthening philanthropy and citizen action.

Annenberg, the billionaire publisher, art collector, and one-time ambassador to Great Britain who spent his later years giving away a fortune to educational and cultural causes, passed away in October at the age of 94. In 1980, Annenberg pledged $150 million over fifteen years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to produce educational television programming and followed that with another $60 million pledge to the Corporation in 1991 to support mathematics and science programming for K-12 students. His donation of $50 million to the United Negro College Fund remains the largest gift ever for historically black colleges, and his $500 million gift in 1993 to launch the Annenberg Challenge was hailed at the time as the largest gift ever to benefit public education in the U.S.

Even with many nonprofits facing serious shortfalls in donations and foundations experiencing declines in their endowments, the sector saw a number of very large gifts from individuals, including a $220 million pledge from Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan to establish a Catholic university near Naples, Florida; gifts of $100 million and $120 million to Poetry magazine and Americans for the Arts, respectively, from Ruth Lilly, the last surviving great-grandchild of the founder of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.; and a $100 million donation from Katherine B. Reynolds to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

In addition, a number of universities and colleges saw their largest-ever gifts in 2002, including New York City-based Cornell Medical College, which received a $100 million donation from Citibank CEO Sanford I. Weill and his wife, Joan, in January, and the UCLA School of Medicine, which received a $200 million gift — believed to be the largest ever to a medical school in the U.S. — from DreamWorks SKG co-founder David Geffen in May.

Among the other significant gifts to higher education in 2002 was the $150 million donated to the University of Texas by retired Dallas oilman and UT alumnus John Jackson; the $64 million left to the University of Virginia by David A. Harrison III, a retired lawyer, investment banker, and farmer who earned a bachelor's degree from the university in 1939 and his law degree in 1941; the $52.5 million given to Purdue University by Indianapolis businessman William E. Bindley; and the $20 million given to Union College in Schenectady, New York, by alumnus John Wold and his wife, Jane.

And then there was the $4.5 million bequest to eight charities, including the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association, from Hudson and Edith Marhoff, a Florida couple who scrimped and saved for decades, becoming millionnaires along the way. "She just was very frugal," said Ruth Fanovich, a registered nurse who cared for Mrs. Marhoff for the last five years of her life. "It took me a long time to get her to understand she had money, and that it would take her a thousand years to spend it."

Bard College Receives $120 Million from Trustees (1/20/02)

Weill Cornell Medical College Receives $150 Million (1/09/02)

Frugal Florida Couple Leaves $4.5 Million to Charity (1/15/02)

John W. Gardner, Common Cause Founder, Dies (2/19/02)

University of Texas at Austin Receives $150 Million Estate Gift (3/05/02)

DreamWorks Co-Founder David Geffen Gives $200 Million to UCLA Medical School (5/08/02)

Purdue University Receives $52.5 Million Gift (10/01/02)

Philanthropist Walter Annenberg Dies at 94 (10/02/02)

Poetry Magazine Announces $100 Million Gift from Eli Lilly Heir (11/19/02)

Domino's Pizza Founder Pledges $220 Million to Start Catholic University (11/22/02)

Union College Receives $20 Million from Alumnus John Wold (12/06/02)

Kennedy Center Receives $100 Million from Catherine B. Reynolds (12/11/02)

Americans for the Arts Receives $120 Million Gift from Ruth Lilly (12/19/02)