Today is #GivingTuesday, and it is a good time to take a look at the philanthropy efforts from top private equity dealmakers who have been stepping up their time and donations over the years. Clearlake Capital‘s José E. Feliciano and Vista Equity ‘s Robert F. Smith are some examples.
Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are co-founders of the Supercharged Initiative. The Kwanza Jones & José E. Feliciano Supercharged Initiative is a philanthropic grantmaking and impact investment organization that invests in both nonprofits and for-profit ventures that are compatible with its goal to make a lasting impact across four key priorities: education, entrepreneurship, equal opportunity, and empowerment. Recent gifts were made to Princeton University, Stanford University and Bennett College, one of the country’s oldest historically Black colleges for women.
Smith has also been donating to education. In August, DonorsChoose, an education nonprofit that connects public school teachers with public donors, said that Smith and PowerSchool fulfilled over 1,800 teacher funding requests for classroom supplies by over 1,300 teachers at over 670 schools where more than 50 percent of the student population is African American, across 6 southern cities plus a surrounding 100-mile radius. The donation is worth over $1.25 million, and will support teachers in predominantly Black schools in and around Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Houston, Memphis and New Orleans, which are communities that are home to half of all Black people in the country.
On the lending side, in October, Ted Koenig and Monroe Capital, the Chicago middle-market lender he leads, said they are donating $10 million toward the Hope Chicago initiative, which expects to raise and deploy $1 billion for 24,000 college scholarships and aid for 6,000 parents.
Tell me how you are giving back during this holiday season. I can be reached at: [email protected].
– Demitri Diakantonis
