A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
Entertainment Community Fund
Hollywood writer, producer, and actor Seth MacFarlane gave $1 million to support the nonprofit’s work helping film and television workers with emergency financial assistance to cover basic living expenses, mental-health support, and other needs during the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. The writers’ strike began three months ago and has halted U.S. television and film production, leaving many writers, production staff, and actors without work.
MacFarlane created the television series Family Guy and The Orville, and he wrote, directed, and appeared in the films Ted, Ted 2, and A Million Ways to Die in the West. He is also a singer who has collaborated with other major musical artists and has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Royal Albert Hall in London. Earlier in his career, MacFarlane was an animator and writer for Hanna-Barbera, an animation and television-production company.
Lorie and Nick Howley gave nearly $12.3 million through their Howley Foundation to support scholarships for nursing students through an effort that will be renamed the Howley ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program. The program provides scholarships to Cleveland-area high-school and college students from diverse backgrounds. The donation will help the clinic double enrollment in the program to approximately 50 students from Cleveland-area high schools annually.
Nick Howley founded and serves as executive chairman of Transdigm Group, a Cleveland company that designs and manufactures engineered aerospace components and systems. Lori Howley is a horticulturalist who for 15 years developed and taught postsecondary and continuing-education courses at Longwood Gardens, a botanical garden in Kennett Square, Pa.
The billionaire novelist MacKenzie Scott gave $10 million through her Yield Giving fund. The donation is unrestricted, but officials said in a news release that the gift will make it possible for the organization to broaden its efforts to expand access to affordable housing across the United States.
Scott is a novelist who helped create Amazon with former husband Jeff Bezos. With a net worth estimated at about $35 billion, Scott is one of the wealthiest women in the world and has given more than $14 billion to at least 1,600 charities since 2020. She appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50list of the biggest donors in 2020.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Eliza Dushku Palandjian and Peter Palandjian pledged $7.5 million to support care for people struggling with substance abuse. Of the total, the Palandjians are directing $5 million to back new treatment programs for substance-use disorders, including the use of psychedelic-assisted treatments, and to support the Brigham Fund, which aids wide-ranging needs across the hospital.
The couple have devoted the remaining $2.5 million to establish the Palandjian Family Distinguished Chair in Medicine. The hospital’s Bridge Clinic will be renamed for the donors, who have been supporters of the clinic’s work since its launch in 2018.
Peter Palandjian is CEO of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, a Boston property-management company his father, Petros Palandjian, founded in 1959. He played professional tennis in the late 1980s and worked for Bain & Company, a Boston consulting firm.
Eliza Dushku Palandjian is an actress who has appeared in films and television, including the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series, Angel. She is currently completing graduate studies in counseling and clinical mental health with a concentration in psychedelic-assisted therapies for addiction and mental-health disorders.
Eau Claire Community Foundation
William (Bill) Bingham left nearly $4.8 million to the foundation to establish an unrestricted endowment fund, which will be named the William A. Bingham Family Endowment Fund. Grants made through the fund will support local charities focused on improving the quality of life for Eau Claire, Wisc., residents.
Bingham was born and raised in Eau Claire and went into real estate after graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1949. He started out working for a local real-estate firm that he eventually took over and renamed Bingham Realty. He died in 2021 at age 93.
University of Mississippi
Steven King gave $1.3 million to establish the Steven B. King Environmental Studies Endowment, develop curriculum for a new degree major in environmental studies, and hire more faculty members in the College of Liberal Arts.
King retired in 2015 as president of Parktown Imports, a luxury auto dealership in St. Louis. He graduated from the university in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in public administration.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.
