Hail to the Philanthropists

HAIL TO THE PHILANTHROPISTS

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“I’m trying to express gratitude for what I got from the university and the business school, while making an investment in the future. It’s a gift to you to be able to make a gift. . . . I don’t think of my giving as being a philanthropist. I’m just helping organizations do a better job. ” — Tom Jones, BBA ’68/MBA ’71 (pictured above with students)

veryone has their own reasons for giving back to causes important to them. In honor of National Philanthropy Day in November, it is time to highlight the reasons why alumni of the University of Michigan Ross School of Business choose to give back to their alma mater, while reflecting on what these gifts mean to the school.

Giving back has been a way of life for Eric Salmansohn, MBA ’82, since he was five years old, when he gave money to plant a tree in Israel. Today, the Morgan Stanley executive director is a regular contributor to the Michigan Ross Annual Fund.

“My personal philosophy is that everyone should try to leave the world a better place than the way we found it,” Salmansohn said. “Just as Michigan helped me to be my best, I want to give back so the cycle of progress continues.”

His daughter, Lia Salmansohn, BBA ’17, also has a passion for philanthropy. Led by a desire to show her appreciation and “pay it forward,” she immediately began giving back to Michigan Ross upon graduation.

Lia Salmansohn said she realized the impact that philanthropy could have on people’s lives from an early age.

“I was in middle school when my grandfather passed away from cancer. In his will, he left behind a room in the then to-be-built Fox Chase Cancer Center (in Philadelphia, PA). It would become a home for out-of-staters seeking treatment and their families,” she explained. “One summer, my grandmother received a letter from a man who had survived cancer. He was writing to say thank you. He wrote that he was certain he had survived because of the room that my grandfather had left behind. What this means to me is that we are all connected, and what we receive, we should also give back.”

Thomas C. Jones, BBA ’68/MBA ’71, wrote a check for $75 to Michigan Ross in the spring of 1982. Twenty-three years later, the former president of CIGNA Corp.’s Retirement & Investment Services made a gift of $10 million to establish the Thomas C. Jones Initiative for Innovation in Undergraduate Education at Ross. Today, this initiative continues to pave the way for countless enhancements of the BBA experience at Ross, from additional courses to expanded experiential learning opportunities to leadership development programming.

Jones said he’s inspired to give back by two primary factors.

“I’m trying to express gratitude for what I got from the university and

the business school, while making an investment in the future,” he shared. “It’s a gift to you to be able to make a gift. ... I don’t think of my giving as being a philanthropist. I’m just helping organizations do a better job. ” David Carson, BBA ’55 (pictured above with students), is another Michigan Ross donor who has significantly increased his giving as his career progressed. In the decade after graduating, Carson started with a modest annual gift of less than $100. In 2005, after retiring as CEO of People’s Savings Bank, he identified a need to bridge the gap between business and public policy education and decided to fund the Carson Scholars Program. This course, which includes a unique learning experience for 60 students during a trip to Washington, D.C., marked its 15th anniversary in 2020.

“The desire to see the next generation educated is something that I still hold very strongly,” said Carson. “It’s an important thing for all of us to do who have benefited from the investments in the past.”

Carson knows that U-M has a rich history of philanthropy, but that history can’t be taken for granted. “The institutions of our society, if they’re going to survive, they’re going to survive not because somebody invested in them in the past, but because people continue to invest in them today because they’re relevant. So if you think they’re relevant, you ought to invest in them.”

Some Ross alums give as a way of honoring those who meant the most to them. Ann Marie Stone, MBA ’85, set up an endowed scholarship for women MBA students. In a survey about her inspirations for giving, she said: “When I got my MBA, there weren’t a ton of

women in business. My Dad, Jack, a Ross MBA ’51, supported me in this process, and having my dad do that was a big deal. My mom was also a U-M grad, just not business, and she was also a huge supporter. So when the time came that they both passed on and I was evaluating the disposition of their assets, the right and proper thing in my mind was to honor them, as well as my own journey, by helping others through their own educational journey. Being able to set up an endowed scholarship that lives beyond them—and me— was a big consideration for me.”

Rindge Leaphart gives to the school in honor of his late wife, Nataki Goodall, MBA ’11. In a donor-relations survey, he said: “My late wife is a Ross alumnus who believed in giving back. I believe it is fair to say that going to Ross was the highlight of her educational achievements. Ross opened up doors for her that she may not have been able to get into. She was Blue through and through.

We talked about if she could give back to Ross, what it would look like. Her words were simple and along the lines of: “I’d like to give back and support people ‘like me.’ No one can be like her, but with the help of Ross, we structured a gift that supports people that are somewhat like her in as many ways as possible!”

Do you remember when you made your first donation? How did it make you feel? What inspired you to give?

To learn more about how your philanthropy can make a world of difference to deserving students — and to the school as a whole — please visit michiganross.umich.edu/giving.