User:Sir. Somerset/draftingtable/BOsher

Philanthropy

Bernard Osher has been a notable philanthropist since 1977 when he founded the Bernard Osher Foundation. His focus has been to advocate for good education, and he has funded projects in the state of Maine and his foster city, San Francisco, which involve education and the arts.

Since founding the Bernard Osher Foundation, nearly 80 percent of its grants have gone to support educational programs, and seventeen percent support arts organizations. his donations have gone towards causes such as scholarships for higher education through the Osher Fellows Program, and Scholarships for University Reentry Students aged 25 to 50 under his Osher Reentry Scholarship Program. Other causes include supporting programs addressing the educational needs of seasoned adults at institutions of higher education uner the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Selected integrative medicine programs, and Arts and educational programs in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and the State of Maine. $70 million in scholarships are given to California community college students, and $16 million worth of scholarships to the University of California at Berkeley's Incentive Awards Program, which helps poor students attend the university.

In 2006, the Bernard Osher Foundation donated $723.2 million dollars in support of these and other programs, resulting in the creation of small programs in several institutions in the United States that promote lifelong learning. His $732 million donation earned him as The Chronicle of Philanthropy's third most generous donor in their annual survey of the largest donors in America.

Osher plans to give away his entire fortune, as he has no heirs, but would enjoy the opportunity of helping members of several generations lead more fulfilling lives by his contributions.