One of the biggest gifts this summer came from a prominent philanthropist couple who have given big to medical research since at least 2007 and are doing it again with a $100 million pledge to the University of California at San Francisco and Stanford University.
The matching donation from former Citigroup CEO and chairman Sanford Weill and his wife, Joan, will launch the Weill Cancer Hub West, a center where scientists will collaborate on four projects that will use new technologies like the gene-editing tool CRISPR and artificial intelligence to advance cancer research and treatment over the next decade. The couple plan to give the money over 10 years through their Weill Family Foundation.
The two universities must raise an additional $50 million apiece for the effort, and have already raised about $25 million, university officials said. The Weills’ pledge follows a $50 million donation they gave in March to Weill Cornell Medicine to establish the Weill Cancer Hub East, which is bringing together experts from four research institutions to investigate how nutrition and metabolism impact the body’s ability to control cancer and to advance immunotherapy treatments for cancer patients.
Other Recent Big Gifts Include:
- Daniel and Carole Kamin gave $65 million through their Kamin Family Foundation to University of Pittsburgh Medical to back the construction of UPMC Presbyterian, the medical center’s newest hospital tower. Daniel Kamin leads Kamin Realty Management, a commercial real-estate firm in Pittsburgh. The couple appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list in March for the $90 million they gave to Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
The late Philadelphia philanthropist Louise Strauss left Harcum College $40 million to support scholarships, improve campus technology, and renovate two campus buildings. Strauss was a volunteer archivist at the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, her alma mater. She served on Harcum’s Board of Trustees for 15 years and died in 2024.
- Samuel and Ann Ginn and their family pledged $30 million through their Ginn Family Foundation to Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. The donation establishes the Ginn Scholarship, which will cover tuition, fees, and room and board for up to five years for 40 students annually. Samuel Ginn is a 1959 Auburn alumnus who co-founded AirTouch, an AT&T-affiliated cellular communications company that was acquired by Vodafone in 1999 for $65 billion.
- The University of California at Los Angeles School of Nursing landed a $30 million pledge from Joe Wen. Wen immigrated with his parents to the United States from Taiwan as a teenager. He earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1998 and later founded Sakura Paper, a paper-trading company in City of Industry, Calif. Today it is a division of Formosa Ltd., a conglomerate Wen established in Taiwan that has holdings in finance, real-estate development, and other industries. The nursing school will be named for Wen.
- UCLA also got $3 million from physicist Mani Bhaumik to back postdoctoral research in the physical sciences. Bhaumik came to the United States from India to attend UCLA on a Sloan Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. Bhaumik is a longtime donor. He had a hand in developing the laser technology that led to Lasik eye surgery.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
