Here is a list of the 12 largest donations made to healthcare organizations in 2021, as reported by Becker's.
1. Sanford Health (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Donation: $350 million
Details: The donation from philanthropist and billionaire Denny Sanford, the namesake of Sanford Health, will create a virtual care center, which will improve healthcare access in rural and underserved communities. Mr. Sanford has donated about $1.5 billion in total to the health system.
2. Sanford Health (Sioux Falls, S.D.)
Donation: $300 million
Details: Sanford Health also received a donation from Mr. Sanford in March, which will go toward improving rural healthcare in South Dakota, expanding medical education, building a virtual hospital and expanding its sports complex.
3. WMed-Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo)
Donation: $300 million
Details: An anonymous group of Western Michigan alumni provided the gift to advance medical education, fund scholarships and support faculty expertise.
4. Break Through Cancer (Cambridge, Mass.)
Donation: $250 million
Details: William Goodwin Jr., Alice Goodwin and the estate of William Goodwin III gave the gift. Mr. Goodwin Jr. is president of the family's Richmond, Va.-based real estate development company. William Goodwin III is the late son of Mr. and Ms. Goodwin and died of cancer in 2020. The donation will go toward a foundation for acute myelogenous leukemia, glioblastoma, and ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
5. UMass Medical School (Worcester, Mass.)
Donation: $175 million
Details: The gift was from the Morningside Foundation, founded by the Chan family of investors, entrepreneurs and philanthropists. To honor the donation, the school received a new name of UMass Chan Medical School.
6. NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn (New York City)
Donation: $166 million
Details: The Bezos Family Foundation gave the donation to address social determinants of health and improve health equity in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn.
7. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore)
Donation: $150 million
Details: Bloomberg Philanthropies provided the money to fund the Vivien Thomas Scholars Initiative, which will recruit students from historically Black colleges and minority-serving institutions to enter PhD programs in the STEM field.
8. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.)
Donation: $125 million
Details: The gift to the hospital came from Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of payment processor Shift4 Payments and co-founder of Draken International, a pilot training company. The donation will support St. Jude's $11.5 billion, six-year strategic plan, which includes tripling the hospital's investment to help children with cancer across the globe.
9. University of Utah School of Medicine (Salt Lake City)
Donation: $110 million
Details: The gift was from the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation. The money will be used for a new medical school building, heart disease research and an endowment for student scholarships, faculty recruitment and medical education programs.
10. Montana State University (Bozeman)
Donation: $101 million
Details: The gift — which was the largest donation ever given to a college of nursing in the U.S. — was given by Mark and Robyn Jones, the founders of Goosehead Insurance. In honor of them, the school will have the new name of Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing.
11. Saint Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston, N.J.)
Donation: $100 million
Details: The donation by the Cooperman Family Foundation was the largest amount ever given to a hospital in New Jersey. Leon Cooperman is a successful financier on Wall Street. The family has donated to the hospital more than 100 times.
12. City of Hope National Medical Center (Duarte, Calif.)
Donation: $100 million
Details: The donation came from Arthur Riggs, PhD, a geneticist and City of Hope's biology division chair, and will go toward the study and treatment of cancer and diabetes. Because of his gift, the diabetes research center was renamed the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute.