Merced Sun-Star
California business magnate Bernard Osher, now 80 years old, has said he hopes to live long enough to give away his entire fortune. He's well on his way. Business Week magazine last year estimated his net worth at $900 million and his lifetime giving at $805 million.
Now Osher has extended his generosity to California community college students. Osher has pledged $50 million to launch a California Community Colleges Scholarship Endowment, the largest gift ever made to a community college system. His commitment is historic and welcome in a number of ways.
First is the target: While Americans donate billions to higher education each year, only 2 percent goes to community colleges.
Second is the nature of the gift. Osher has committed $25 million to launch the scholarship fund, but another $25 million will be a match to serve as what he has called a "springboard" to encourage private giving. The California Community Colleges will have to raise $50 million over the next three years. The aim, in the end, is to create a permanent $100 million scholarship endowment that will give scholarships to 5,000 students a year.
Lastly is Osher's encouragement of community college transfers to the University of California and California State University. He has pledged $20 million in scholarships for those students, too.
Osher's giving follows in the steps of Andrew Carnegie, who believed it was a bad idea to hold onto "surplus wealth" until one's death. Carnegie, writing in 1889, encouraged the wealthy to "help those who will help themselves" and to "provide part of the means by which those who desire to improve may do so."
Osher's gift continues that great tradition of American philanthropy.
