David Rubenstein
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Carlyle Group
FUNDING AREAS: Arts & Culture, Education, Health, Historic Documents, Patriotic Preservation, Public Policy
OVERVIEW: David Rubenstein is an original signer of the Giving Pledge. He supports arts and culture, education, health, policy and the preservation of historic documents, artifacts and sites. Though Rubenstein makes large donations to a number of organizations, it does not appear that he has a personal charitable vehicle.
BACKGROUND: David Rubenstein graduated from Duke University and University of Chicago Law School. He served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments from 1975 to 1976 and as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during Carter’s presidency. In 1987, he cofounded the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, with William Conway and Daniel D'Aniello. Carlyle manages more than $200 billion in investments worldwide.
ISSUES:
ARTS & CULTURE: Rubenstein’s arts and culture philanthropy has mainly supported well-established organizations of national importance. Past grantees include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he serves on the board of trustees; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution. A complete list of recent arts and culture grantees is available at Rubenstein’s personal website.
EDUCATION: Rubenstein’s education giving has prioritized higher education. At Duke, his alma mater, he has chaired the board of trustees and supported athletics, the arts center, libraries and the Sanford School of Public Policy. Other higher education grantees include the Harvard, the University of Chicago Law School and Tsinghua, a research university in Beijing, China. Rubenstein has also supported public education in Washington, D.C., the Junior Achievement Essay Competition and the Library of Congress Literacy Awards. A complete list of education grantees is available at Rubenstein’s website.
HEALTH: Rubenstein is a trustee of Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine, where has funded the David M. Rubenstein Child Health Building and the David M. Rubenstein Hearing Center. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he endowed the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. Rubenstein is also a founding donor of Target ALS, “a privately funded consortium of researchers from academic and biotech/pharma laboratories entirely focused on finding a treatment for patients living with ALS.”
HISTORIC DOCUMENTS: Rubenstein has partnered with the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution on projects to preserve historically significant maps, documents and engravings. His personally owned copy of the Magna Carta is displayed in the David M. Rubenstein Gallery at the National Archives Museum in Washington, D.C. Rubenstein has also given $15 million to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
PATRIOTIC PRESERVATION: Rubenstein has also supported the preservation of many historical monuments and sites in the U.S. Past projects include the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument, the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. A complete list of projects supported by Rubenstein is available at his philanthropic activities page.
POLICY: Rubenstein has served as co-chair of the Brookings Institution and has supported the Aspen Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. and the Institute for Advanced Study. More information about his work in the area of policy is available at his website.
LOOKING FORWARD: Rubenstein is likely to continue to support well-established organizations in his areas of philanthropic interest. As he enters retirement age, he is also likely to give more time to chairing non-profit organizations and shepherding institutions toward sustainable, long-term growth.
CONTACT:
Managing Director, Carlyle Group
1001 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20004-2505
202-347-2626
LINK:
