Philanthropy: Accelerating advances

Over the past year, Virginia philanthropists continued to support medical research and higher education, with several demonstrating their commitment through subsequent donations.

Northern Virginia philanthropists Dwight and Martha Schar carried on their longtime support of Falls Church- based Inova Health System, providing a $75 million matching gift to the health system in May 2023. Inova will use the gift to support research, outreach, prevention and early diagnosis of cardiovascular ailments, including hiring more health care professionals and expanding specialty services. Counting this most recent gift, the Schars have donated $126 million to Inova since 1993. Dwight Schar founded Reston-based Fortune 500 company NVR, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders and mortgage banking companies.

To support cancer and neuroscience research, the Red Gates Foundation, established by the estate of Richmond philanthropist Bill Goodwin’s late son, Hunter, committed $50 million to the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in September 2023. Hunter Goodwin’s parents and estate made a $250 million donation in 2021 to kickstart a national cancer research foundation.

In the past year, Virginia universities reported record gifts, multiple of which funded scholarships.

In October 2023, philanthropists David and Kathleen LaCross added $50 million to their October 2022 donation of $44 million for the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. David LaCross, who founded and sold financial tech company Risk Management Technologies, earned his MBA from Darden, and Kathleen LaCross earned her bachelor’s degree from U.Va. Their 2022 gift launched Darden’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative, and the $50 million donation will help pay for additional AI research and instruction, as well as a residential college at Darden.

U.Va. Darden also received a $5 million commitment from Stephen and Phyllis Bachand in December 2023 to establish a professorship focused on business ethics. The university will match the gift from the former president and CEO of Canadian Tire Corp. and his wife to reach the endowment required to establish a professorship.

Additionally, donors supported U.Va.’s McIntire School of Commerce, with Ramon W. Breeden Jr., founder and chair of Virginia Beach-based developer The Breeden Co., giving U.Va. $50 million to be divided between the university’s renovation and expansion of McIntire and work on a new athletics complex.

U.Va. alumnus John Connaughton and his wife, Stephanie, donated $10 million in March 2023, funding need-based undergraduate scholarships for McIntire students. John Connaughton is co-managing partner of Bain Capital, and Stephanie Connaughton is an angel investor and senior adviser to several startups.

In Northern Virginia, George Mason University’s business school received a $50 million bequest from the late Donald G. Costello, a Loudoun County native and business owner, in April 2023. The largest individual gift in George Mason’s 75-year history, the bequest establishes an endowment for undergraduate and graduate business student scholarships, and the university renamed its business school for Costello.

In October 2023, Virginia Tech announced it had received a $10 million donation from Preston White, the founder of Virginia Beach-based contractor Century Concrete, and his wife, Catharine, to create the Preston and Catharine White Endowed Diversity Scholarship.

The late Irene Piscopo Rodgers, a 1959 graduate of the University of Mary Washington, bequeathed $30 million to her alma mater, the largest donation in the university’s 115-year history. The gift, announced in March 2023, will grow UMW’s undergraduate research program and support four new scholarships.

University of Richmond alumni and previous donors Carole and Marcus Weinstein gave to the university twice last year, donating $25 million to support a student learning center and $3 million for the chaplaincy to support Jewish life. In September 2023, UR’s Robins School of Business reported a $10 million gift from an anonymous alumnus to establish an endowed scholarship fund.

As in previous years, the commonwealth’s philanthropists remain forward-looking, supporting the immediate and future development of both health care and education.