NET WORTH: $1.94 billion
SOURCE of WEALTH: Bloomberg L.P.
FUNDING AREAS: Environment, Arts & Culture, Education, Health
OVERVIEW: Tom Secunda and his wife Cindy signed the Giving Pledge in 2011, and now the Secunda Family Foundation appears to be ramping up, giving away several million dollars a year. Interested primarily in conservation and arts and culture, Secunda has served as chairman of the board for the National Parks Conservation Association and is still currently on the board. He also serves on the boards of the Manhattan Theater Club and the Intrepid Museum Foundation.
BACKGROUND: Secunda grew up in Bethpage, N.Y., and received both his bachelor’s and master’s in mathematics from Binghamton University. He started his career on Wall St. as a fixed-income trader at Morgan Stanley, and also worked at Salomon Brothers before becoming one of the co-founders of Bloomberg L.P.
PHILOSOPHY: In their Giving Pledge letter, Secunda and his wife Cindy stated that they believe philanthropy is a private matter, but that their actions set an example for others. They also said they believe in a mixture of large and small giving.
ISSUES:
ENVIRONMENT: Environmental conservation appears to be the biggest recipient of Secunda’s giving; the National Parks Conservation Association was receiving around $1 million from the Secundas on an annual basis, even before he served as chair. Other organizations, such as the Friends of Westchester County Parks, Wave Hill, National Parks of NY Harbor Conservancy, the Governor’s Island Alliance, and Scenic Hudson have received smaller amounts of funding.
ARTS & CULTURE: While Secunda’s largest contributions in arts & culture go to the Intrepid Museum Foundation, where he sits on the board, he also likes to spread the wealth around, supporting a variety of smaller cultural institutions in New York City. While he is on the board of the Manhattan Theater Club, for example, he's also supported organizations such as the Hudson Stage Company, the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Little Orchestra Society, and the Public Art Fund. And while most of the money stays close to home, he has supported the Opera Training Institute of Chicago.
EDUCATION: In addition to his alma mater and other schools with family affiliation, Secunda has giving general purpose donations to a number of schools in New York and a few that are farther away, including Johns Hopkins, Harvey Mudd College, and Northwestern University. The grants aren’t anything that is going to get a building named after them, but after a while, $50,000 here and $100,000 there really starts to add up.
HEALTH: While the Secundas have yet to unleash their fortune to tackle health issues in a major way, they do make modest donations to a variety of health organizations on a regular basis, including the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the SLE Lupus Foundation, and the Foundation for Gender Specific Medicine. These grants usually range from $5,000 to $100,000, and are often recurring.
NYC COMMUNITY: Secunda has been a contributor to the Fund for the City of New York, as well as the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York. He’s also been a contributor to the Inner City Scholarship Fund, the YMCA of Greater NY, and others.
JEWISH COMMUNITY: Though not as generous to the Jewish Community as many of his Wall Street counterparts, Secunda still makes significant contributions to several Jewish organizations, most notably the American Israel Education Foundation, American Jewish Joint Distribution, and the UJA Federation. All told, the Secundas have given at least a couple million to Jewish organizations.
LOOKING FORWARD: In their Giving Pledge letter, the Secundas state that they are looking forward to delving into new areas of philanthropy in the coming years, so we may see an expansion in their current areas of interest, but we may also start seeing larger contributions in areas where they have only just gotten their feet wet, such as health and education. Certainly, the influx of cash into their family foundation over the last couple years shows that they are preparing to start giving away more significant chunks of their money. And they’ll have to if they plan on fulfilling their Giving Pledge. Even a generous estimate of $25 million in total donations is still a far cry from the $750 million they are planning to give away.