Francine A. LeFrak
Credit - Michael Ostuni—Francine LeFrak, whose family oversees one of the biggest real estate companies in the New York City tri-state area, focuses her philanthropy on women, using an approach that she calls the 'three pillars' of wellness: physical, mental, and financial.
The latest example of her largesse: the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being at Barnard College, which opened in June 2024. The state-of-the-art facility, which cost $36 million to build (LeFrak's foundation was the lead donor), offers behavioral and physical fitness services and financial literacy training to both students and college staff at the women's college. The year before the foundation took a similar approach in New Jersey financing a wellness center in Jersey City that provides vocational training, medical services, and micro-grants to women involved in the court system.
LeFrak, who hopes to replicate the Barnard wellness center at other colleges, says she developed her three-pillars approach in 2007 after working with Rwandan women who were supporting themselves by selling handmade jewelry and housewares after surviving the country's 1994 genocide. 'Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn't,' says LeFrak, a 2019 Giving Pledge signatory. 'The dignity of work is the best philanthropy.'
Contact us at letters@time.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Forbes
Forbes Daily: A Major CDC Shift On Covid-19 Vaccines Draws Criticism
No one has donated more to Parkinson's disease research than Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and now he's giving away another $700 million. Brin's recent gift of Alphabet shares was split between three nonprofits, most of which went to his 4-year-old nonprofit Catalyst4. Brin, who is worth an estimated $137 billion and is currently the world's eighth richest person, sees the work as deeply 'personal.' His mother had Parkinson's and he carries a genetic mutation that gives him a much higher chance of getting the disease. His hope is to address both scientific research and eventual treatments for central nervous system diseases, which also include autism and bipolar disorder. The CDC is no longer recommending routine Covid-19 vaccines or boosters for pregnant women and healthy children, a decision that drew criticism as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a longtime vaccine skeptic. FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, who appeared in the video announcement with Kennedy, had written that pregnancy was a high-risk condition for Covid infections earlier this month. The Giving Pledge announced 11 new signatories in 2025 who have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetime or in their wills—the largest cohort since 2021. Six of the new pledgers are members of Forbes' Billionaires' List, and the richest among them is Canva cofounder and chief product officer Cameron Adams, who is worth an estimated $2.9 billion. Satya Patel Homebrew In Forbes' fourth annual Midas Seed list, a global ranking of the top 25 seed stage investors, Silicon Valley veteran Pejman Nozad stayed in the top spot. And a lack of IPOs and acquisitions means a handful of massive private startups are driving changes in the rankings for even those investors focused on the very earliest stage of a startup's lifecycle. MORE: Satya Patel, a partner at the venture firm Homebrew who ranked No. 13 on this year's Midas Seed list, refers to his broad philosophy as a VC as 'bottom up' investing—betting on companies from 'boring' industries like HR or banking, and gussying them up with high-tech software. He's made early bets on companies like IPO-bound digital bank Chime, payroll unicorn Gusto, and Plaid, which was acquired by Visa in 2020 for $5.3 billion. Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump's crypto strategy, Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is raising $2.5 billion to build a corporate bitcoin reserve. According to an SEC filing, the company will sell $1.5 billion in shares and $1 billion in convertible bonds to institutional investors, the proceeds of which will be used for the reserve—making cryptocurrency a core part of its balance sheet. Elon Musk said he is 'disappointed' with President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' bill passed by the House last week, his most direct criticism of a signature White House policy after recently stepping back from his work as the head of DOGE. Musk said the expansive budget bill 'undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' as it is expected to add around $3.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next 10 years, according to an estimate published by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. A body of the United Nations released a new report that projects global temperatures will remain near record levels over the next five years, with a strong chance the 2024 annual temperature record will be broken during this period, likely worsening the impact of climate change and increasing the chances of extreme weather events. There is also a 70% chance that the 5-year average temperature for 2025-2029 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial numbers—a key benchmark laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement. As President Donald Trump escalates his attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump on Tuesday took credit for preventing 'lots of really bad things' from happening to Russia and said the Russian leader is 'playing with fire.' Trump's criticism comes after Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, killing at least 12 people, according to the Associated Press. TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE A string of recent high-profile aviation safety incidents has travelers nervous as summer approaches. A few key ways to reduce risk when flying, experts told Forbes, include avoiding airports with air traffic issues and booking direct flights. Consider your seat and the type of plane you'll be flying in, too—larger airplanes typically have more sophisticated safety systems. General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, No. 8 on Forbes' 2025 Midas List, believes his venture capital firm is going to transform how Americans access health care. Last year, the firm announced its $485 million purchase of Summa Health, an 8,000-employee hospital system based in Akron, Ohio, with the aim of plugging it into Silicon Valley's innovation engine. That means injecting tech and artificial intelligence into almost every step of the health care process, from checkups to insurance. Buying a hospital is jaw-dropping for a VC. Tech investors preach disruption, but they are deeply conservative when it comes to running their own funds. General Catalyst wants to break that mold. Since 2018, it has morphed from a typical VC partnership to a multi-hyphenate investment house: There's the firm's 'creation' fund, which spins up new AI companies aimed at remaking dusty industries like accounting or customer service. Then there's the General Catalyst Institute, a think tank looking to shape technology policy around the world, and GC Wealth, a white-glove broker meant to woo well-heeled founders away from private banks. That makes Taneja, 50, one of the champions of a new class of venture capitalist. 'Mega funds' are the sometimes-sniffy label for General Catalyst and peers like Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed and Thrive Capital, Josh Kushner's outfit. Managing tens of billions of dollars, they are still minnows compared to Blackstone ($1 trillion in assets) and KKR ($660 billion), but Taneja's ambition isn't to be the biggest investor. Instead, he wants General Catalyst to be a 'strategic conglomerate.' But perhaps the biggest risk is that General Catalyst is doing too much. 'I get that question a lot,' Taneja says. He says it's a matter of having 'leadership bandwidth' and a good operating model, comparing the company to Amazon, which expanded from books to data centers to grocery stores to moviemaking. WHY IT MATTERS Taneja has his critics, too. General Catalyst's industrial-scale investing barely resembles venture capital, some say. Others snipe, discreetly, about General Catalyst's focus shifting from generating returns from financing startups to 'farming fees' from ever-multiplying funds. But Taneja's supporters are willing to back his bold vision thanks to a near-15-year winning streak. Since moving to Silicon Valley from Boston in 2011, Taneja has backed payment giant Stripe (last valued at $91 billion), defense startup Anduril (in funding talks at a $28 billion valuation) and a string of health care unicorns like Commure (valued at $6 billion). MORE Ranking The World's Top Venture Capitalists In 2025 The Trump Administration paused interviews for new student visa applicants as it weighs expanded social media screening, a potential indication of a wider crackdown on international students: More than 1.1 million: The number of international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2023-24 school year, according to the Institute of International Education $43.8 billion: The amount per year international students contribute to the U.S. economy $100 million: The value of the remaining government contracts with Harvard that the Trump Administration canceled Tuesday Remote work gives employees greater flexibility, but it can also be isolating. To help feel less lonely when working from home, try organizing occasional meetups if your colleagues are nearby, and if not, organize virtual lunches where the discussion isn't about work. It can be easy to blur the lines between personal and professional if your home is also your office, so be sure to dedicate a designated workspace, even if it's just a small corner. Users reported outages for a popular streaming service Tuesday, the latest server disruption for the company. Which streaming platform is it? A. Netflix B. Spotify C. Apple Music D. Hulu Check your answer. Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.
Bloomberg
28-05-2025
- Bloomberg
Giving Pledge Adds Ultra-Rich Members to Donate Their Wealth
The Giving Pledge has brought on 11 new signatories in its latest effort to spur philanthropy of the ultra-wealthy. Billionaire Dropbox Inc. co-founder Drew Houston and Invisibly founder Jim McKelvey, along with their spouses, are among the group that has penned letters promising to give away the majority of their wealth in their lifetime or their will.
Forbes
27-05-2025
- Forbes
11 New Members Join The Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge
By Thomas Gallagher Cameron Adams, the Australian billionaire cofounder of Canva, and his wife Lisa Miller, have just joined the Giving Pledge. In its largest cohort since 2021, the Giving Pledge announced 11 new signatories in 2025 who have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes in their lifetime or in their wills. Nine of the new signees hail from the U.S., one from Australia and one from the U.A.E. Six of the new pledgers are members of Forbes billionaires' list and have a combined estimated net worth of $9.3 billion. The wealthiest among them, Cameron Adams, worth an estimated $2.9 billion, is cofounder and chief product officer of graphic design software company Canva. He joins Canva's married cofounders, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, who signed the pledge in 2021; Adams joined the pledge with his wife Lisa Miller. The couple's Wedgetail Foundation is devoted to conserving and restoring biodiversity. The second wealthiest in the cohort, Drew Houston, worth an estimated $2.1 billion, is cofounder and CEO of file hosting service Dropbox; Houston joins with his wife, Erin. Additional signatories include Syntel founder Bharat Desai ($1.6B) and his cofounder and wife Neerja Sethi ($1B), who support economic mobility, education and entrepreneurship; Square (now called Block) cofounder Jim McKelvey ($1.6B) and his wife Anna; and founder and CEO of Cambridge, Massachusetts life sciences venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering Noubar Afeyan ($1.2B) and his wife Anna Afeyan Gunnarson. Other newcomers include Emirati businesswoman Muna Easa Al Gurg; Joseph Deitch, the founder and chairman of investment adviser Commonwealth Financial Network; venture capitalist Jay Hoag and his wife Michaela, who founded Part the Cloud, which raises funds for Alzheimer's disease research. The Giving Pledge was created in 2010 by billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett in an effort to address the world's most urgent issues. Fifteen years ago the Giving Pledge launched with 40 American philanthropists. Since then, over 210 signatories have signed on, including some of the world's wealthiest people, such as Elon Musk, worth an estimated $430 billion and Mark Zuckerberg, worth an estimated $221 billion. And the pledge has attracted wealthy philanthropists from around the globe, from India to Indonesia and beyond. The pledge is a promise, not a contract, and those who run the Giving Pledge do not audit billionaires' giving. Some signers, like Charles Feeney (d. 2023), cofounder of Duty Free Shoppers, gave away far more than half of his fortune to charitable causes. For many other pledgers, including some who have passed away, it's not clear whether or not they have held up their charitable promise.
