SPECIAL FEATURE | THE PHILANTHROPIC since 1983. It wasn’t until their donation was marked as one of the year’s largest gifts, that this very philanthropic couple was recognized for decades of multi-milliondollar donations. Diane (recipient of the Washington Life Substance & Style award 2004) and Steve Goldberg have also been major funders to the Wiezmann Institute of Science and the Arc Theater and are benefactors of the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund.
DONALD GRAHAM AND KATHARINE WEYMOUTH This uncle-niece duo is synonymous with The Washington Post and the Washington Post Company, a conglomerate of smaller media entities with the Post as its crown jewel.
ADDING VALUE TO YOUR PHILANTHROPY BY STEVE VIEDERMAN
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inance sometimes seems like the stepchild of philanthropy. Grants are where the action is. But leveraging grant-making with asset management can add value and impact to grant dollars.A few ways that investments can responsibly support a foundation’s mission: • Align your mission and your investments by owning companies that are the best in their sectors on environmental, social, and governance (ESG). ESG factors have been mistakenly labeled “extra-financial” in the past, but have recently been shown to be material in determining a company’s long-term potential. • Resolve to make your foundation an active shareowner rather than a passive shareholder. Use voting proxies and cofiling or filing shareowner resolutions to impact how companies do business. • Invest in communities. Cash reserves can be invested in federally-insured community development banks with guaranteed returns of about three percent, so it makes sense financially and programmatically. • Seek out emerging industries and companies that are working on solutions to issues of concern to the foundation. Technologies to reduce carbon emissions are a good example.
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The Post’s Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, endowed in 1944 by Eugene Meyer and his wife, Agnes, is a powerhouse that gives away millions annually (approximately $10 million last year) to a variety of causes including hunger and the arts. Graham also serves as chairman of the D.C. College Access Program, as a director of the Summit Fund of Washington, and founded the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan.
SIDNEY AND JANE HARMAN Harman International founder and Shakespeare Theatre endower ($19 million) Sidney Harman gives back through the Harman Family Foundation, which won the 2007 Wilmer Shields Rich Awards for Foundation Communications in the category of Independent, Family, and Operating Foundations. With his currently beleaguered politico wife, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), by his side, they generously donate to causes that support education innovation and the arts.
National Museum of Women in the Arts. In late 2008, Mrs. Holladay published the book, “A Museum of Their Own: National Museum of Women in the Arts,” which chronicles her journey towards creating the museum and fighting to get female artists recognition.
SHEILA JOHNSON A founder with her former husband, Robert, of Black Entertainment Television, Johnson has quickly become one of the area’s most high-profile philanthropists. Media giant Viacom bought BET in 2002 for about $3 billion, and the couple reportedly split about $1.6 billion in proceeds from the deal. She donated $4 million to CARE in 2007, $2.5 million for a performing arts center at the private Hill School, $5 million to UVA for the Sheila C. Johnson Center of Human Services, and recently gave another $4 million to her alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music.
JEONG AND CINDY KIM TERESA HEINZ A generous spirit plus a personal fortune of approximately $550 million (she just missed making the Forbes 400 this year) and control of a myriad of family-related endowments allow Teresa Heinz to be one of the country’s most generous donors to causes that include global warming and human rights. Although she was first married to the late Republican Sen. H. John Heinz II, an heir to the Heinz foods product fortune, and is currently married to Sen. John F. Kerry, a Democrat, Heinz avoids partisanship where major contributions are concerned. She is regarded as a visionary in philanthropic circles, especially for the annual six-figure Heinz Awards bestowed upon ground-breaking innovators in widely diverse fields.
HELEN LEE HENDERSON A major patron of the arts who works behind the scenes and is now at the helm of the HRH Foundation – founded by her mother, Helen Ruth Henderson – she has contributed generously to many area institutions including the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Signature Theatre and the National Gallery of Art. Henderson started as a $50 donor to the Kennedy Center in 1996, and has now contributed multiple seven-figure donations toward the Center’s international work as well as setting up several charitable gift annuities. Her generosity to the Kennedy Center has allowed Michael Kaiser to plan for and present all of the major international festivals of the last six years, as well as the Sondheim Festival in 2002. Henderson is former director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Asolo Theater Company in Florida.
WALLACE AND WILHELMINA HOLLADAY The Holladays, established real estate developers, were among the first to apply the revisionist approach to art collecting, devoting 20 years to assembling works by women. However, the second step was to display this astonishing collection for public consumption, and with this in mind, Wilhelmina Holladay transformed the former Masonic Temple on the corner of 13th Street and New York Avenue into the
This 2006 Washington Business Hall of Fame inductee earned money for college working nights at a 7-Eleven, then went on to launch Yurie Systems, which he sold in 1998 (at age 37) to Lucent Technologies for $1.1 billion. The ex-Navy man, whose personal share from the sale was $500 million, is heavily involved with the University of Maryland as a jointly appointed faculty member, building donor (the Jeong H. Kim Applied Sciences Building), and a $5 million dollar supporter of UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. Kim is also part- owner of the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals and a key supporter of Venture Philanthropy Partners.
JAMES V “JIM” KIMSEY Founder of AOL, the West Point grad generously supports his alma mater as well as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. He established the Kimsey Foundation in 1996 to focus attention on improving education and social conditions for young people in Washington through generous giving and strategic partnerships. Born in Washington and raised in Arlington, Kimsey is an alumnus St. Johns College High School and has served on the board of Georgetown University. Heavily entrenched in the arts community, Kimsey served as chairman of the Washington Opera, and the Executive Committee of the National Symphony Orchestra and was appointed to the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center by President Clinton and again by President Bush in 2006. In 2000, Jim Kimsey gave a $10 million gift to the Kennedy Center and has been a major donor ever since. Part of his gift established an endowment so that every 5th grader in Washington has a chance to come to the Kennedy Center each year. Kimsey also serves as the Chairman of the International Commission on Missing Persons, headquartered in Sarajevo, with offices in Iraq and Colombia.
AUSTIN H KIPLINGER The son of W.M. Kiplinger, the founder of Kiplinger Washington Editors, Austin Kiplinger followed his father’s lead as a major collector of Washingtoniana.
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