Philanthropy
Through the Waitt Foundation, Waitt has become one of America’s 50 most generous philanthropists, according to Business Week. The Foundation funds partnerships and projects, sometimes in conjunction or collaboration with the Waitt Institutes, that seek a deeper understanding of human history and improve mankind’s knowledge through historical and scientific exploration.
Established in 1993, the Foundation initially focused on domestic violence prevention and community development, knowing that building stronger families and societies will help foster the vision of a better world. The creation of the Waitt Institutes in 2005—the Waitt Institute, and the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention—has allowed the Foundation to broaden its program interests to the global community.
Waitt serves as the Chairman of the Founding Fathers campaign of the Family Violence Prevention Fund, just one of the efforts that he supports in the fight to prevent domestic violence. Waitt was appointed by Congress to serve on the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce and has served on numerous other corporate and philanthropic boards of directors, including the Advisory Council of the National Geographic Society and as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
On 1 May 2008, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies announced the grant of $20 million from the Waitt Foundation to fund the creation of an Advanced Biophotonics Center. On 18 December 2008, the William J. Clinton Foundation released a list of all contributors. It included Theodore Waitt, who gave between US$10–25 million. On April 23, 2011, the Sioux City Public Museum had its grand opening. $4 million of its $13 million development budget was donated by the Waitt Foundation.
Mr. Waitt resides in La Jolla, California, with his family.
Read more about this topic: Ted Waitt
Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)