Do Whatever You Think Is Right

Ruth Gottesman

Sandy Gottesman created the wealth. Ruth Gottesman chose how to use it.

She didn’t know much about the fortune. When he died in 2022, she inherited the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio with just one instruction. Seventeen months later, a retired pediatrics professor made the largest gift ever to an American medical school.

Who She Is (And Why It Matters)

Ruth Gottesman graduated from Barnard in 1952 and earned a master's at Teachers College at Columbia. She later returned for a doctorate in education, finishing in 1968. That year, she joined the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

She worked with children who had learning disabilities, at a time when many went undiagnosed. She developed screening and evaluation tools. In 1992, she started an adult literacy program. In 1998, she became the founding director of Einstein’s center for treating learning disabilities.

She spent 32 years on the faculty and stayed connected to Einstein for 55 years. She chaired the board from 2007 to 2014, and again starting in 2020.

Her husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman, co-founded the investment firm First Manhattan and was one of Warren Buffett’s first investors. They were married for 72 years. When he died, Forbes estimated his net worth at about $3 billion.

She told The New York Times she hadn’t known about the portfolio. His instructions were simple: “Do whatever you think is right with it.”

The Big Promise

In February 2024, Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion to Einstein. The school said it was the largest gift ever given to a medical school in the United States.

The terms were simple: no Einstein student would pay tuition again. Fourth-year students received their spring 2024 tuition back. Starting that August, everyone attended tuition-free, forever.

Tuition was about $59,000 a year. Many graduates left school owing more than $200,000.

Full Breakdown of the Strategy

Structure: The gift is an endowment. The principal stays invested, and the earnings cover tuition each year. This is the opposite of Chuck Feeney’s approach, who set up his foundation to spend all its money and then close.

Restriction: The gift has one clear purpose—tuition.

Recognition: A $1 billion gift could have put her name on the school, but she asked for it to remain Albert Einstein.

Track record: The $1 billion gift was the biggest in a long line of donations. In 1999, she and Sandy gave $6.5 million to build the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, which was the college’s largest gift at the time. She thought others would soon give more, but 25 years later, she surpassed her own record. In 2010, they also gave $25 million to Einstein for a stem cell research institute.

Each gift went to a place where she had been a student or a trustee.

What Actually Worked

Four things made this gift possible.

Proximity influenced her decision. She spent 55 years at Einstein as faculty and later as a trustee. She understood student debt firsthand.

The purpose is clear. “No student pays tuition again” works in a press release, and it will mean the same thing to a dean 50 years from now.

She didn’t rush. About 17 months passed between Sandy’s death and the announcement. She told the Times she wasn’t sure at first what to do with the money.

The announcement itself was an act of stewardship. She told the students in person, and video of their excitement spread widely. For a donor who kept her name off the building, that moment probably meant more than any plaque.

What Could Limit the Impact

The endowment’s ability to last depends on keeping up with tuition costs. By my estimate, a 5% payout on $1 billion is about $50 million a year. With about 183 students per class, four classes at $59,000 each totals around $43 million. That cushion could disappear quickly if tuition rises faster than investment returns.

Tuition is only part of the cost. Students still have to pay for living expenses in New York, and free tuition alone may not change who applies.

Feeney’s approach spent money quickly but didn’t last. Gottesman’s endowment is built for the long term and only uses its earnings each year. Both choices have real tradeoffs.

Lessons for Chief Fundraisers

Here’s how this applies to your day-to-day work.

The person who earned the money may not be the person who decides.

Sandy created the wealth. Ruth decided how it would be used. Many of our prospect files focus on the person who earned the money, like the founder or the firm’s namesake. Give the same attention to the spouse. Learn what matters to her and where she has invested her time.

Your biggest prospect might already be on your roster.

Ruth Gottesman was first a faculty member, then a trustee. The wealth was always under her husband’s name. Review your list of long-serving volunteers and committee members. Ask yourself whose household wealth you haven’t looked into because they’re listed as “volunteer.” At AAP, that list includes our members—pediatricians who have given us their time for years.

A death in the household is a capacity event.

The gift happened about 17 months after Sandy died. A surviving spouse often gains full control of the assets and may rethink their priorities. Stay engaged during that time and offer real support, but let them decide when they’re ready. If you ask too soon, you can’t undo that mistake.

Write the case so it fits in one sentence.

“No student pays tuition again” was clear and needed no explanation. If your gift officers describe your main priority in four different ways, donors get mixed messages. Try this: ask three gift officers to write your top priority in one sentence. If you get three different answers, your donors are hearing three different cases.

Watch the gift ladder.

$6.5 million. $25 million. Then $1 billion. Each gift went to a place where she was already involved. Add an “insider history” field to your top 50 prospect profiles, listing every board seat and volunteer role they’ve held anywhere.

Coming Next Week

Every Chief Fundraiser hopes for a gift like Ruth Gottesman’s. Next Sunday, I’ll talk about what happens when too much of your revenue depends on gifts like this.

We’re ahead of our goal this year. About 63% of our sponsorship and cause alliance revenue comes from our top 10 donors. I’ll share the one line I’m adding to our board deck so the board can see both numbers together.

Until next Sunday,

Christine

PS – If lesson two made you check your volunteer list, reply and let me know who you found. I read and respond to every message.

This newsletter grows one fundraiser at a time, and mostly by word of mouth. If it's useful, forward it to one Chief Fundraiser who'd get something out of it.

I’m Christine Bork, Chief Development Officer at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I write CFW to share what I’m learning as I lead a growing team and try to do the work in a way that’s sustainable and thoughtful.