Five Extraordinary Philanthropists

Barron’s profiled five innovative philanthropists who donate both their time and money to the causes they support. A brief overview of these five extraordinary philanthropists and the causes they support are below:

1. Glen Whitney, a former algorithms specialist at Renaissance Technologies, raised over $22 million to open the Museum of Math in New York City. The museum is aimed at fourth through eighth grade students and will feature exhibits that are both fascinating and educational.

2. Laura Arrillaga–Andreessen, a Standford University professor, taught the University’s first MBA class on how to become a philanthropist. Over 500 students have enrolled in the class since it began almost a decade ago, and many students stay in contact with Andreeseen and one another to discuss job leads, charitable programs, and grants.

3. Eleven years ago, Gerald Chertavian founded Year Up, a nonprofit program aimed at training low income eighteen to twenty four year olds to work for blue-chip companies. The students learn college-level grammar, database management, and computer network design. Each year, the 1,3000 students are guaranteed a six-month internship at a top-firm, and 84% of students either find full-time jobs that pay $15 an hour on average or enroll in full-time college after graduation.

4. Dianna Barrett uses her family’s $7 million foundation to fund socially progressive documentaries. Barrett created the Fledgling Fund in 2005, which awards grants to filmakers after it rates a film’s impact based on audience size, frequency of screening, extent of press coverage, and public or political discussion. The Fledging Fund awards $2 million in grants to filmmakers annually and receives around 800 applications a year.

5. Jeremy Guth has actively tried to connect the national parks of the western part of North American since 1999. Guth, as trustee of the $36 million Woodcock Foundation his parents created, strategically buys parcels of land and encourages efforts to build wildlife crossings to help prevent collisions between cars and animals.

See Michelle Slatalla, Five Fascinating Philanthropists, Barron’s, Dec. 3, 2011.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (WealthCounsel) for bringing this article to my attention.