The T&C 50: The Top Philanthropists of 2017
These men and women are committed to changing the world—and with a combined giving power of $321 billion, they can do it.
On Tuesday May 9th, the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit will tackle a list of issues as diverse and vitally important as the causes championed by the men and women on this list: Climate change, criminal justice reform, mental health, the global refugee crisis, and the arts. Speakers include our cover stars Michael Bloomberg and John Legend, Valerie Jarrett, Glenn Close, Zosia Mamet, David Miliband, and five members of Elizabeth Taylor's family, who will speak about her legacy.
This story originally appeared in the June/July 2017 issue of Town & Country.
Michael Bloomberg
Grand Plan: Fight climate change.
Making Headlines: In addition to serving as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, NYC’s billionaire former mayor teamed up with environmentalist Carl Pope on a new book, Climate of Hope, and recently created the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy.
John Legend
Grand Plan: Reform the criminal justice system and end mass incarceration.
Making Headlines: The musician, who is behind the nonprofit awareness campaign #FreeAmerica, is launching Unlocked Futures, a fund that will provide grants for formerly incarcerated people to launch businesses.
Cate Blanchett
Grand Plan: Use her celebrity profile to draw attention to the refugee crisis and speak up for the powerless.
Making Headlines: The actress, who is a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, has been working with its global #WithRefugees campaign to mobilize support and raise funds to provide lifesaving humanitarian aid.
Paul & Maurice Marciano
Grand Plan: Make one of the world's great contemporary art collections accessible to the public.
Making Headlines: This spring the brothers behind the Guess fashion empire will open the doors of the Marciano Art Foundation, a 100,000-square-foot Los Angeles space that houses their collection of contemporary works.
Connie Nielsen
Grand Plan: Help Africa's poorest citizens become self-sufficient.
Making Headlines: After working in Nairobi, Kenya, on a film project, the Danish actress co-founded the Human Needs Project to construct a town center in Kibera, one of Africa’s most impoverished slums, that provides basic infrastructure and services. It will serve as a blueprint for future centers.
Sanford & Joan Weill
Grand Plan: End Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and related disorders.
Making Headlines: In 2016 the for mer Citigroup honcho and his wife donated $185 million to launch the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. There, psychiatrists and neuroscientists must work side by side, with treatment clinics adjacent to labs.
Courtenay Cabot Venton
Grand Plan: Convince world powers that investment in avoiding humanitarian crises is not only humane, it's good business.
Making Headlines: The economist is the secret weapon of groups like the UN and Oxfam seeking funds (or avoiding cuts) to address conflicts and disasters.
Howard & Cindy Rachofsky
Grand Plan: Combat AIDS with art.
Making Headlines: The couple open their Richard Meier–designed Dallas home for Two X Two, their annual art auction for amfAR. To date they’ve raised $68 million. Overflow art lives at their 18,000-square-foot exhibition space, the Warehouse.
Anna Deavere Smith
Grand Plan: Use theater to show how lack of opportunity can lead people into the criminal justice system.
Making Headlines: The first part of her Pipeline Project, the play Notes from the Field, opened to acclaim in late 2016; the New York Times labeled the Mac-Arthur genius grant recipient “the American theater’s most dynamic and sophisticated oral historian."
Priscilla Chan & Mark Zuckerberg
Grand Plan: Cure all disease; improve education.
Making Headlines: The couple, who have promised to give 99 percent of their Facebook shares to their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, recently donated $3.6 million to alleviate the eviction crisis in the Bay Area; this fall they announced a $3 billion effort to cure disease via new technologies.
Eli & Edythe Broad
Grand Plan: Encourage entrepreneurship in science and the arts.
Making Headlines: The billionaire art collectors recently increased funding to the stem cell research centers they started at three California universities. Research they funded has already helped cure a severe combined immunodeficiency disease and manage macular degeneration.
Nicole Hockley
Grand Plan: End gun violence.
Making Headlines: After her son Dylan was killed at school, Hockley and fellow Newtown, CT, parents started Sandy Hook Promise to lobby for mental health awareness and gun policy change. Right now she's working to pass Extreme Risk Protection Orders, legislation helping families temporarily remove firearms from people at risk of hurting themselves or others.
Todd Wagner
Grand Plan: Help non-profits conquer the digital landscape through the Charity Network, the Amazon.com of philanthropy.
Making Headlines: A new partnership with the Weinstein Company creates opportunities for fans to meet celebrities, attend red carpet events, and participate in filmmaking, with the money raised going to a charity partner.
Cari Tuna & Dustin Moskovitz
Grand Plan: Prevent robots from taking over.
Making Headlines: The Facebook co-founder and his journalist-turned-full-time-philanthropist wife, who support global health and criminal justice reform, allocated tens of millions to research on biosecurity, artificial intelligence, and pandemic preparedness through their Good Ventures foundation and Open Philanthropy Project.
Jeff Skoll
Grand Plan: Pioneer a new kind of doomsday prep.
Making Headlines: The former eBay exec’s Skoll Global Threats Fund is assembling experts, organizations, and governments to “safeguard humanity” from threats like nuclear weapons and climate change. As founder of Participant Media, he’s behind such films as An Inconvenient Truth and its upcoming sequel.
Paul Allen
Grand Plan: Use his $20 billion fortune to preserve the earth and keep humans alive.
Making Headlines: He donated millions to thwart the Ebola epidemic; then he invested $100 million to start the bioscience-focused Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group. Now he’s considering a major investment in data-driven climate modeling.
Jon Huntsman Sr.
Grand Plan: Cure cancer.
Making Headlines: The billionaire plans to donate his fortune before his death, with much of it going to Salt Lake City’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. This month, a $173 million expansion opens that includes a biotechnology center with highly advanced genetic sequencing and imaging equipment.
Laura & John Arnold
Grand Plan: Distribute the fortune he made as a natural gas trader at Enron to reform the criminal justice system and improve education.
Making Headlines: They gave $59 million to education initiatives last year and partner with the Pew Trusts on various projects, including one to research and enhance community super-vision systems and electronic modeling.
Nitzia Logothetis
Grand Plan: Treat postpartum depression and related issues.
Making Headlines: This year her NYC-based Seleni Institute is going global. Clinicians around the world will be trained to properly care for women with maternity disorders, and telemental health services will provide specialized treatment via secure video feed.
Gbenga & Aisha Oyebode
Grand Plan: Empower African women; support the arts.
Making Headlines: She’s a co-convener of Bring Back Our Girls in response to the Boko Haram kidnappings; she also runs the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (named for her father, the late Nigerian head of state). Gbenga just joined the board of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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