Dalio, Novogratz, Skoll Give Audaciously: Philanthropy Tracker

(Bloomberg) -- The inventor of a fish taco soda, an energy mogul and a hedge fund manager are some of the big givers included in the Bloomberg News Philanthropy Tracker for April. Email tips to agordon01@bloomberg.net.

April gifts

$406 million: Ray Dalio, Laura and John Arnold, Mike Novogratz, Chris James and Jeff Skoll are among the backers of the new TED Audacious Project that will fund nonprofits seeking to affect at least a million people or bring about transformational change. Among the first to receive contributions are Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Environmental Defense Fund, GirlTrek, Sightsavers and the Bail Project. Applications for the next group are due June 10.

$100 million: Nancy and Robert Carney, who worked in the airline industry before founding a publisher of travel periodicals, to expand research into brain and nerve disorders at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

$70 million: Nancy and Rich Kinder, co-founder of energy company Kinder Morgan Inc., toward restoration of the 1,500-acre Memorial Park in Houston, which is almost double the size of New York’s Central Park. The couple’s Kinder Foundation is making the gift to the Memorial Park Conservancy.

$70 million: Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, to Birthright Israel Foundation for young Jewish adults to travel to Israel.

$50 million: Janet and Craig Duchossois, CEO of the Duchossois Group, to the Art Institute of Chicago. The unrestricted gift demonstrates “our confidence and support” of President James Rondeau, said Janet Duchossois, a museum trustee. The couple and other family members gave $100 million to University of Chicago last year to develop a “new science of wellness” focused on the microbiome, genetics and the immune system.

$30.1 million: David Dafoe, founder of Flavorman, a beverage development company in Louisville, Kentucky, to Miami University in Ohio, where he majored in zoology. The gift will provide student scholarships. Dafoe once created a fish taco soda.

$21.25 million: Mary and Barry Gossett to create a center that aids University of Maryland athletes in academic and postgraduate success. Barry Gossett, a retired executive in the modular space business, previously gave $10 million to build the football “team house."

$18 million: Corrine and Bob Frick, founders of the Roosters restaurant chain, to Ohio State University College of Medicine for a center to research and treat heart failure and arrhythmia as related cardiac disorders.

$15 million: Margaret and Dan Loeb, founder of Third Point LLC, to Success Academy to start the Loeb Fund to Reimagine the American High School.

$12 million: Alphabet Inc. CEO Larry Page’s family and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated to create the Universal Influenza Vaccine Development Grand Challenge. The goal is to fund collaborations that develop products ready for human clinical trials.

$10 million: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Rockefeller Foundation created the Communities Thrive Challenge to fund strategies to help financially insecure people in the U.S. The goal is to “build a future where people don’t have to depend on luck to succeed," said CZI co-founder Priscilla Chan. As many as 10 organizations will receive a $1 million grant to scale proven local solutions.

$10 million: Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel LLC, for a Chicago Police Department program tracking gunshot data to respond to and prevent crime. The analysis is a collaboration with the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

$4.7 million: Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation to investigate the effects of cannabis compound cannabidiol on autism. The study will be conducted at the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Ray Noorda was CEO of Novell Inc.

$2 million: Charles Barancik, who bought and managed companies and turns 90 at the end of May, and his wife Margery to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, for a solar-powered building with edible garden, restaurant and rainwater harvesting. The couple made the gift through their family foundation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Dan Reichl

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.