Financier David Rubenstein Announces Big Gift to Lincoln Memorial

Washington financier David Rubenstein is celebrating Presidents’ Day by giving $18.5 million to restore and enhance the iconic Lincoln Memorial, officials at the National Park Foundation announced today.

The donation is one more in a long list of contributions Mr. Rubenstein has made to public institutions and the third gift he has made in recent years to the National Park Foundation, the fundraising arm of the National Park Service.

Last year he gave $5.4 million for improvements to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, and in 2014 he donated nearly $12.4 million to refurbish Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

His latest contribution comes several weeks after he announced a $10 million donation to the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture, which is scheduled to open this fall.

The co-founder of the Carlyle Group has given a total of about $385 million to nonprofits since 2006, with at least $135 million of that going to Washington area institutions focused on the nation’s history. He has appeared in The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50report of the most generous donors five times since 2010.

His latest gift is part of the National Park Foundation’s biggest fundraising campaign in its 49-year history. The nonprofit hopes to raise $350 million in the coming years.