One year ago
»» George Soros topped the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 50 largest charitable donors in America, with donations totaling $332 million.
This year, Soros is again near the top, in fourth place, and he has been joined on the list by three other hedge fund givers: John Arnold of Centaurus Advisors, Bruce Karsh of Oaktree Capital Management and Thomas Steyer of Farallon Capital Management.
Three hedge fund mavens dropped off the ranking from last year: T. Boone Pickens, Bill Ackman and George Weiss.
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Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Foundation goes off Broadway
Ray Dalio makes $10 million challenge grant to Robin Hood
Hedge funders play high stakes poker for charity
»» David Tepper joined the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City charity, following a record 2009 in which reports indicated that the Appaloosa Management founder made as much as $3 billion. Robin Hood, founded by Paul Tudor Jones, boasts such hedge fund heavyweights on its board as Glenn Dubin and Dan Och.
“You noticed I’ve been making some money,” Tepper told AR at the time. “So I can give a little bit more money to different places.”
Those donations have included, as recently as last month, $3 million to “Feeding America,” a charity that operates 200 food banks nationwide. The foundation also reportedly gave eight food banks across the country grants to purchase $150,000 refrigerated trucks to help with deliveries.
The David Tepper Charitable Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Five years ago
»» Balance Asset Management, founded by former Bear Stearns executives Kevin Robik and Steven Audi, exceeded $150 million in assets after returning 16% in its first year.
But the firm’s event-driven strategy hit headwinds in the summer of 2007, dropping 1.97% in June and 7.41% in July, putting the fund down 7.56% for the year (fund data here). Balance told investors in Aug. 2007 that it was liquidating.
After Balance, Robik joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head of equity proprietary trading. He left in February of 2011 with plans to raise $500 million for a new multistrategy fund. Robik told AR that still intends to launch once he obtains a direct seeding deal from a large institutional investor.
Audi’s last position was at Balance, according to his LinkedIn profile, and he now manages a private portfolio. He did not respond to a request for comment.
