Ex-Microsoft executive creates $50 million arts, sciences fund

By Jolayne Houtz
Seattle Times staff reporter

	TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES Charles Simonyi, front right, is honored for donating $10 million to the Seattle Symphony. Philanthropist Jack Benaroya is at left, Jody Schwarz, wife of conductor Gerard Schwarz, is behind Simonyi, symphony executive director Paul Meecham is in back at right.
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Simonyi's first gift — $10 million to the Seattle Symphony — aims to help the organization get back in the black and to "encourage its future potential," he said at a news conference at Seattle's Benaroya Hall.

The new Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences will be one of the largest in Washington, ranking among the state's top 15 or 20 foundations based on the size of its endowment.

Its launch is striking both in scale and timing, coming as the state has only just begun to recover from an economic downturn that caused charitable giving to flatten.

Simonyi, a modern-art collector and classical-music lover, said arts and sciences are the highest aspirations of the community.

"I intend to make a difference by providing organizations and people with access to excellence," he said. "People should have access to excellent organizations and educational activities, excellent music."

The new foundation plans to distribute about 10 percent of its principal each year over the next 10 years to organizations that "demonstrate excellence" in the fields of art, science and education.

That's double the 5 percent threshold federal law requires foundations to meet, noted Susan Hutchison, the former KIRO-TV news anchor who will serve as executive director.

Simonyi, 55, joined Microsoft in 1981 and became known as the architect of the Microsoft Word program.

He previously worked at Xerox, earned a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University, speaks six languages and is an experienced pilot.

At Microsoft, the Hungarian-born programmer was one of the company's most highly regarded engineers before he left in 2002 to start Intentional Software in Bellevue.

Forbes magazine has reported his fortune to be around $1 billion. He lives in Medina.

Simonyi has given to a number of Seattle organizations, from the University of Washington to the Seattle Art Museum. He has endowed a chair at Oxford University for the public understanding of science, and another at Princeton University for theoretical physics.

He said he created his foundation, in part, to formalize his giving and make his philanthropy more effective.

While his initial gift focused on Seattle, Hutchison said future gifts also will be national and international in scope.

The foundation's $10 million donation to the Seattle Symphony is the orchestra's largest-ever operating gift and leverages an additional $5 million from a challenge grant offered by longtime symphony benefactors Jack and Becky Benaroya.

The Simonyi gift includes:

• $5 million toward the orchestra's endowment fund. The symphony's endowment fund is now about $18 million, about equal to its annual operating budget.

"Ordinarily, you would look for an endowment in an organization like this to be four to five times the size of its annual operating budget," said new symphony executive director Paul Meecham.

• $5 million for operations, in part, to help attract and retain musicians by sustaining a contract that increases wages for symphony musicians during the next two years. About $1 million will go toward development of a "New Europe Festival" for the 2005-06 season to celebrate Central and Eastern European music.

The Seattle Symphony has finished its past two fiscal years in the red. While Simonyi's gift doesn't solve the organization's money troubles, Meecham said, it's an important step toward stability and may prevent deep cuts.

During the news conference, Jack Benaroya passed a symbolic conductor's baton to Simonyi, who represents "the next generation of community philanthropists," Benaroya said.

He lauded Simonyi for "leading by example" and said his gift will encourage others to step up, while Simonyi credited Benaroya's philanthropic leadership with encouraging his own giving.

Peter Donnelly, president and CEO of ArtsFund (formerly Corporate Council for the Arts), said, "It's very encouraging to see somebody doing this so visibly and going public with it. It inspires others."

Simonyi's new venture "sends a message that you can't put off your passion just because times are tough," said Paul Shoemaker, executive director of Social Venture Partners Seattle, a local philanthropic organization launched by technology wealth in 1997.

Jolayne Houtz: 206-464-3122.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company