Wealthy donors publicly gave more to mental health last year than in any other year over the past decade: According to a Chronicle of Philanthropy tally of publicized donations of $1 million or more, 15 donors gave 16 such gifts totaling nearly $767 million in 2021.
Police violence and pandemic-related illness, death, isolation, and economic fallout have been especially tough on people of color and other marginalized groups. Andrea Brown, executive director of the Black Mental Health Alliance, says these crises have heightened anxiety among Black people, especially Black youths. If there’s a silver lining, Brown says, it’s that today’s Black youths are much more comfortable acknowledging their mental-health struggles than their elders were.
TACKMA sportswear founder Jeffrey Schottenstein and his parents, Jay and Jeanie, gave $10 million to Ohio State University for a new mental-health program to build students’ emotional resiliency and better equip them to cope with mental-health challenges. The gift grew out of conversations Jeffrey Schottenstein had with university officials about his struggle with depression and anxiety during his freshman year there and how keeping it to himself made it worse.