Leonard and Louise Riggio: Donor Grants
/NET WORTH: Unknown
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Barnes and Noble
FUNDING AREAS: Arts & Culture, Education & Youth, Human Services, Health
OVERVIEW: Leonard and Louise Riggio conduct philanthropy through the Riggio Foundation, which gave away around $4.7 million in a recent year. The Riggios are active art collectors and support these causes. They also fund education, including HBCUs.
BACKGROUND: Leonard Riggio attended New York University. Beginning with a single college bookstore in 1965, Riggio built one of the largest enterprises in the history of American retail, Barnes and Noble.
ISSUES:
ARTS & CULTURE: The Riggios are active art collectors who’ve been on ARTNews’ top 200 collectors list. They’ve given millions to the Dia Art Foundation, helping launch Dia:Beacon in the early 2000s. The couple have also directed millions to Korean Cultural Center New York and to Studio Museum. They’ve also served as benefactors for a range of public art initiatives including Chinati, The Spiral Getty, and Michael Heizer’s City Project. Other grantees have included Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jewish Museum, Exploring the Arts, Whitney Museum, Tribeca Film Institute, and American Museum of Natural History.
EDUCATION & YOUTH: Riggio also devotes much of his time to public education. He led the nation’s first-ever private endowment for a public high school, Brooklyn Technical High School, his alma mater. The couple are supporters of arts education, including creating the Leonard and Louise Riggio Writing and Democracy Initiative, an endowment with the mission to accent "the writer in the world” at the New School. This work has even touched HBCUs, recently making a $2 million gift to Spelman College toward construction of the Center for Innovation & the Arts. Other grantees have included Boston University, Columbia University, and the Children's Aid Society. The couple also recently made a $1 million gift to establish the Class of 2019 “Leonard and Louise Riggio Scholarship Fund at Kingsborough Community College.
Riggio served on the board of Children’s Defense Fund, where he organized and funded the 1996 “Stand for Children” March in Washington. The couple have also supported the Freedom School at Haley Farm in Tennessee, whose mission is to cultivate young community leaders. Long passionate about Civil Rights, Riggio helped launch The Langston Hughes Library (Riggio’s favorite poet) and The Riggio-Lynch Chapel.
HOUSING & BASIC NEEDS: The Riggios helped build homes for families who lost their homes in New Orleans, committing at least $20 million. The’ve also couple gifted more than 100 homes to displaced families through a nonprofit they launched called Project Home Again. Other grantees have included St. Francis Food Pantries and Shelters, Goddard Riverside Community Center, New York City Rescue Mission, and Franciscan Bread for the Poor.
HEALTH: The Riggios have supported Weill Medical College of Cornell University. In the past, they were also steady backers of Prostate Cancer Foundation.
LOOKING FORWARD: Expect family giving to continue to track with established interest areas.
CONTACT:
The Riggio Foundation does not provide a clear avenue for getting in touch with the couple, but below is an address:
The Riggio Foundation
122 5th Ave., Ste. 10
New York, NY 10011
(212) 633-3375
