Weekly Major Gift Editorial
December 14th, 2009
by Terry Burton

What an amazing week of philanthropic announcements!

Over $228.5 million in gifts, grants and pledges to more than 250 nonprofit organizations.

Along with Lorry Lokey’s $110 million gift to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, we heard of the $50 million + gift to Loyola University of Chicago from John Cuneo, Jr., his wife, Herta, and the Cuneo Foundation.

In other major gift news the secret identity of a nonprofit benefactor was revealed in New York this week. David Gelbaum, a former hedge-fund manager who has made large donations anonymously, confirmed that over the past five years he has given a total of nearly $388-million.

Gelbaum’s gift went to three nonprofits, the ACLU that received $93.5 million, $246.8 million to the Iraq Afghanistan Deployment Impact Fund and $47.7 million to the Sierra Club Foundation.

However, the identity of the anonymous donor to women led universities and colleges remains a mystery. The gifts have become less frequent over the summer and fall of 2009. One reports puts the tally at over $74 million.

What isn’t a mystery is the timing of more than $250 million of grants and pledges made this last week across the USA.

As we move towards year end the money and the announcements of the act of giving are combining to create a positive theme, helping to define a path towards better things to come in 2010.

Major gifts listed here come from individuals, private foundations and corporate philanthropy. The 2009 Major Gifts Archive began publication in May of this year and is sponsored by  DonorSearch.net.

To view the week by week reports & my editorials click through and read on. Enjoy and you are most welcome.

Contributing author, Terry Burton, is President of Dig In Research. Author, speaker and consultant on emerging trends & strategies for major gifts. For more information please visit my web site at http://diginresearch.biz or call 248-881-2323. Follow me on Twitter @Major_gifts.