The University of Iowa was one of three universities this week to receive record gifts, cumulatively ... [+]
This past week saw three universities receive the largest private gifts in their histories, with the collective donation figure surpassing $200 million. The University of Iowa received a gift of $70 million. Virginia Commonwealth University announced a pledge of $104 million. And Claremont Graduate University was left $42 million from the estate of one of its alums.
University of Iowa
On February 15, the University of Iowa announced that it had received the largest gift in its 175-year history - $70 million from the Richard O. Jacobson Foundation to build a new patient care building as part of UI Health Care in Iowa City.
The new facility, which will feature single inpatient rooms, state-of-the-art operating rooms, and intensive care unit beds, will be built across from Kinnick Stadium, where the Hawkeyes play football. It will be named in honor of the late Richard O. Jacobson pending approval from the Board of Regents.
"We are proud to serve Iowa with our state’s only comprehensive academic medical center, providing life-saving and life-changing care to people from across the state and beyond," said UI President Barbara Wilson in the University’s release. "Richard Jacobson’s commitment to the UI was extraordinary, and this latest and very generous gift on his behalf will allow our exceptional health care team to deliver the highest level of care to all Iowans."
Richard "Dick" Orrin Jacobson, a native of Belmond, Iowa, founded Jacobson Companies, a highly successful company engaged in transportation, investment management, and warehousing. Jacobson was a former student in the University’s business school and received the University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2000 for his lifetime of support for the university, which included gifts of more than $86 million.
Virginia Commonwealth University
Also this week, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) received a pledge of $104 million to support its new liver health institute. It’s the largest individual gift in VCU’s history.
The donation came from R. Todd Stravitz, M.D. and his family’s Barbara Brunckhorst Foundation. Stravitz is the former director for liver transplantation at VCU and the grandson of the founder of the Boar’s Head deli company.
Dr. Arun Sanyal, a liver disease specialist, will lead the initiative, which the university will call the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health at VCU. Its work will involve teaching, research, and clinical care.
“Words cannot capture my feelings of gratitude for the transformative gift of Dr. Todd Stravitz and the Barbara Brunckhorst Foundation,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., president of VCU and VCU Health. “Todd has made history with his incredible leadership and generosity to VCU, supporting an institute that will forever change VCU and catalyze its commitment to our work with the human liver and metabolism. This gift firmly puts the needs of patients first.”
Stravitz was a physician-philanthropist in the Department of Internal Medicine at VCU School of Medicine. He retired in 2020 after serving as the medical director of liver transplantation at VCU Health’s Hume-Lee Transplant Center for a decade.
About the gift, Stravitz said, “My grandfather started the foundation in 1968, but my mother really developed it. It’s mostly an environmental and conservation foundation, but before she died about 15 months ago, she and I decided to expand that to medical research, too. I was given the responsibility and the blessing of choosing a recipient in the medical field and what better recipient than VCU, where I’ve been for 30 years?”
Claremont Graduate University
On February 15, Claremont Graduate University (CGU), located in Claremont, California, announced that it had received the largest private gift commitment in its nearly 100-year history—$42 million from the estate of alum Patrick F. Cadigan, a real estate investor and former tech CEO.
Cadigan earned his master’s degree (1978) and PhD in management (1980) from Claremont, while studying under management theory guru Peter Drucker, a longtime member of Claremont’s faculty.
The gift will go toward the costs of constructing a building that will become the new home for the university’s School of Arts & Humanities. The facility will also serve as a hub for facilitating entrepreneurship and multidisciplinary research and education, a main principle advanced at CGU.
In the university’s release, Maria Cardigan said of her father who died in April 2020, “Dad felt a strong personal responsibility to give back to the schools that contributed to the man he became and to the high level of success he achieved. It deeply moves me when I think of CGU’s future generations of leaders working together and collaborating in the magnificent building that will be erected in his honor.”
“This gift offers a tremendous opportunity for CGU to build something with form and function that inspires innovation and entrepreneurship,” said University President Len Jessup. “The working name in our master plan for the two-acre lot is the Da Vinci Project. That sets a high bar for what we want to accomplish, and thanks to Mr. Cadigan, that goal is within our reach.”
