NET WORTH: $1.5 billion
SOURCE of WEALTH: Bloomberg, L.P.
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Arts & Culture, Poverty
OVERVIEW: Zegar’s largest contributions have gone to NYU, where he is on the board of trustees, but few organizations have seen more than a hundred thousand dollars. The Giving Pledge signatory seems to be ramping up his giving, though: In 2013, the Zegar Family Foundation held just over $119 million in assets, compared to around $51 million two years before. The foundation also gave out more than $3.4 million.
BACKGROUND: Zegar was born to a Jewish family of modest means in New York. His mother was a musical comedy performer and opera singer, his father a subway conductor. He attended Long Island University and then NYU for a masters in computer science. While working at Salomon Brothers, he met Michael Bloomberg, who offered Zegar an ownership stake in the financial data company he was starting. Zegar headed up software development for the company.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Zegar is on the board of trustees for NYU, where he has donated over $4.5 million through his family foundation. The Trevor Day School, presumably where Zegar’s children attended, have received at least $400,000. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Columbia University have been recipients of Zegar funds as well.
POVERTY: Zegar has supported the Modest Needs Foundation, a national organization that provides short-term financial assistance to individuals and families in temporary crisis, and are ineligible for most other types of social assistance.
ARTS & CULTURE: Zegar is a major benefactor of the Little Orchestra Society/Orpheon, having contributed approximately half a million dollars to the organization. The foundation has also made smaller donations to organizations such as the New York Foundation for the Arts, Figure Skating in Harlem, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the Anne Frank Center, the Global Heritage Fund, and the National Parks Conservation Association.
HEALTH: The Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the Columbia University Medical Center, Doctors Without Borders, and a few other health-related organizations have received smaller amounts of funding.
JEWISH COMMUNITY: The Allied Jewish Federation of Colorado has been a regular recipient of funding from the Zegars, as has the Society for the Advancement of Judaism and a few other New York-based organizations.
LOOKING FORWARD: While the recent donation to his foundation does indicate that he may be starting to ramp up his giving, Zegar seems content, thus far, to give out donations to a wide variety of causes, with seemingly little in the way of a cohesive plan or mission. In addition to the causes listed above, he has given a regular donations to an organization called Cradle of Hope that runs a number of adoption centers, and has also donated to causes like the Innocence Project, which seeks to overturn wrongful convictions. Poverty and children are two likely places we could see an increase in funding.
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