Photo by Images of Money

Who made big cross-border charitable donations in 2013?

I created a short list using the following guidelines. The gifts on my list were all

  • made by individual donors who were alive at the time their gifts were made (i.e., no bequests were included)
  • worth at least US$1 million
  • made to organizations based in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom (the three main countries where my clients are based)
  • made by individual donors who reside outside of the countries where their gifts were made.

A few other caveats: I only included gifts announced publicly through news articles or press releases in English. Expanding the search to other countries and other languages also would be an interesting exercise — another project for another blog post.

The Gifts

April 2013

Dr. Kazuo Inamori, “chairman emeritus of Kyocera Corporation, which he founded in 1959, and chairman emeritus of Japan Airlines,” made a US$3 million donation to the Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park in San Diego. His gift was the largest ever given to the garden.

Len Blavatnik, who is originally from the Ukraine and now lives in London, made a US$50 million to Harvard University in April 2013. This “gift will launch a major initiative to expedite the development of basic science discoveries into new breakthrough therapies for patients and cures for disease.”

In April, Dr. Joong Keun Lee made a gift of US$1 million to endow an exchange program between George Washington University and Seoul National University. Dr. Lee is “founder and chairman of the Booyoung Group in Seoul.” You can watch a video of the signing ceremony for this gift on Vimeo.

 

May 2013

Kings College London created the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre for Politics, Philosophy & Law upon receiving a £7 million gift from “from the family of Malaysian alumnus Mark Yeoh” in May 2013. The Yeoh family owns “YTL Corporation – one of Malaysia’s largest companies with interests in construction, utilities, hotels, property development and technology.” Pictures from the launch event for the new Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre can be viewed here.

 

June 2013

In June, American hedge fund manager Bill Ackman made a £4.5 million donation to Oxford University via his Pershing Square Foundation, which is based in New York City.  The gift created the “Oxford Pershing Square Graduate Scholars Programme which will fund up to five Scholarships a year for promising future leaders of social change studying for the Oxford 1+1 MBA programme at Saїd Business School.”

 

July 2013

Eyal Ofer, an Israeli shipping heir and real estate investor who lives in Monaco, made a £10 million donation to Tate Modern in July. He made the gift through the Eyal Ofer Family Foundation. According to a Tate press release, “his family has a long tradition of philanthropy in the UK and overseas.”

 

September 2013

On September 2, 2013, American philanthropist and London School of Economics (LSE) graduate Erich Spangenberg made a US$1 million gift for entrepreneurship programs the LSE, where he had previously supported scholarships. This gift was made through his Spangenberg Family Foundation, which is based in the United States.

Hong Kong businessman and philanthropist Li Ka Shing made a US$130 million donation to Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to create the Technion Guangdong Institute of Technology (TGIT) in partnership with Shantou UniversityMr. Li founded (in 1981) and continues to provide significant funds for Shantou University, which is located in the Chinese province of Guangdong.

Mr. Li also made a  C$6.6 million donation to create an exchange program between McGill University in Canada and Shantou University. Although he is based in Hong Kong, Mr. Li has a foundation in Canada, through which the McGill exchange donation was made.

Also in September, Canadian businessman and former Rhodes Scholar John McCall MacBain made the largest gift received by the Rhodes Trust since its founding in 1903. His £75 million (US$120 million) gift will allow the Rhodes program “to expand … into new geographies.” The gift was made through the McCall MacBain Foundation, which is based in Switzerland.

 

October 2013

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University received a US$74 million donation from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Hélu in October 2013.

 

November 2013

On November 1, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London announced a £20 million (US$32 million) gift from US-based philanthropist Fred Eychaner via his Alphawood Foundation. The gift was made “to advance the study and preservation of Buddhist and Hindu art in Southeast Asia.”