A roundup of notable gifts compiled by the Chronicle:
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Thomas Siebel gave $50 million to establish the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, which will be housed within the Grainger College of Engineering. Siebel is a University of Illinois alumnus who earned three degrees from the university: a bachelor’s in history in 1975, an MBA in 1983, and a master’s in computer science in 1985.
He founded C3 AI, an artificial intelligence software company used by industry giants and the military, in 2009. In 1993, he founded Siebel Systems, a software company that merged in 2006 with the Oracle Corporation, where he served in management posts in the latter half of the 1980s.
He has given extensively to his alma mater over the years, including a $100 million gift in 2007 to endow science and engineering research, graduate fellowships, and professorships. He and his wife Stacy have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors four times.
Davidson College
Robert Abernethy gave $25 million to support the college’s library, which will be named for the donor’s late father, George Lawrence Abernethy, who started Davidson’s philosophy department and served as its only professor from 1946 until 1961. He also co-founded Davidson’s humanities program.
Robert Abernathy founded American Standard Development Company, a real estate company, and Self Storage Management Company, which manages industrial parks and other facilities. He served in various posts for the city of Los Angeles in the 1980s and ‘90s, including as commissioner of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and as a commissioner of the Los Angeles Telecommunications Commission. He said he gave the donation not only to honor his father, but because he thinks libraries need additional support right now.
“Our job these days is to get students into libraries to use the resources of libraries,” Abernethy said in a news release. “I’m aghast at the efforts across the U.S. to remove resources from libraries and even further aghast at the efforts to make librarians criminals by having books declared illegal by legislators. This runs in the wrong direction of where we, as a society, need to go.”
Haverford College
Private equity titan Michael Kim gave $25 million to establish the Institute for Ethical Inquiry and Leadership. The money will also endow professorships and programs within the institute and support the construction of a building to house the institute. Kim is a billionaire who co-founded MBK Partners, a private equity firm with headquarters in Seoul, South Korea.
He previously served as president of the Carlyle Group’s Asia Partners division, and as managing director and COO of Asia-Pacific Investment Banking for Salomon Smith Barney. Kim is also a writer. His novel, Offerings, was published in 2020 and is currently being made into a feature film.
Born in South Korea, Kim was 11 when he moved to the United States in the 1970s. He lived with an uncle in West Orange, N.J., for a year before his parents and sister joined him. He became a U.S. citizen and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Haverford in 1985, and then an MBA at Harvard Business School in 1990. He started his career at the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, eventually becoming an executive director there before joining Salomon Smith Barney.
This isn’t Kim’s first donation to his alma mater. In 2010, he gave Haverford $7.5 million through his MBK Educational Foundation to build a new residence hall, and he has served on the college’s board of trustees over the years. He will rejoin the board as chairman on July 1.
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Karen and Robert Hale gave $10 million to support research programs at the foundation, where Karen Hale was recently appointed co-chair of the board of directors. The donation is part of $26.2 million in charitable donations the Hales announced after Robert Hale ran the Boston Marathon on April 15.
The Hales are known in the Boston area for giving huge sums to big institutions, such as hospitals and higher education, but they also donate to dozens of smaller organizations in the area. In 2022, they gave more than $50 million to 75 small nonprofits, most of which were human service groups in Massachusetts.
Robert Hale co-founded Granite Telecommunications, a Quincy, Mass., telecommunications company, and he is co-owner of the Boston Celtics professional basketball franchise. The Hales have appeared on the Philanthropy 50 several times since 2018.
Riley Children’s Foundation
John and Sarah Lechleiter pledged $8 million through their White Oak Foundation to embed mental and behavioral health services for youths in pediatric and primary care offices. The program aims to provide services to roughly 80,000 children and adolescents in urban, suburban, and rural areas across Indiana. Some of the money will be used to establish a $2 million endowment for the effort.
John Lechleiter is a retired chair, president, and CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company. He serves as co-chair of the Indiana Mental Health Roundtable.
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County
Dorothea and Steven Green gave $2.5 million through their Green Family Foundation Trust to launch and endow the Dorothea Green Chair of Education and Community Engagement and to support the center’s education programming, including free shows for Miami-Dade County Public School students, pop-up neighborhood performances, and other programs.
Steven Green is a former chair and CEO of the Samsonite Corporation. He served as the United States Ambassador to Singapore from 1997 to 2001. Dorothea Green founded the Steven and Dorothea Green Critics’ Lecture Series at Florida International University. She is a former model and Miss New York.
The couple created their foundation in 1991 and primarily have supported access to the arts, education, HIV/AIDS prevention and education, assistance for people experiencing homelessness, and disaster relief.
To learn about other big donations, see our database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly.