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Shelby Davis was one of the most powerful philanthropists of his generation. He and his wife, Mimi, founded the Davis Family Foundation, which has given away over $1 billion to charitable causes.
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The Life of Shelby Davis
Shelby Cullom Davis (August 29, 1907 – February 15, 1994) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was born in Washington, D.C., the son of James Monroe Davis and Marion French Davis. His father, a native of Virginia, was a career diplomat who served as chargé d’affaires to Denmark and later as ambassador to Ecuador; his mother was from Chicago. Shelby Davis attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Princeton University in 1930.
During World War II, he served in the United States Navy as a lieutenant aboard the aircraft carrier USS Shangri-La in the Pacific theater. Following his military service, he worked for an insurance company in New York City before moving to Switzerland in 1948 to join an investment banking firm. In 1952, he returned to the United States and co-founded a Wall Street investment firm, Shelby Cullom Davis & Company, with $50,000 of his own money and $600,000 borrowed from friends and family. The firm was successful, and by the time Davis retired in 1986 it had grown to manage $5 billion in assets.
A passionate believer in the power of philanthropy to change lives, Shelby Davis donated more than $600 million to charitable causes over the course of his lifetime. He was particularly committed to supporting education, health care, and the arts; among other things, he helped create the Davis United World College Scholars program at thirteen U.S. colleges and universities (including his alma mater Princeton), which provides full scholarships for two years of undergraduate study to students from around the world who demonstrate financial need. He also established scholarship programs at St. Albans School and Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS), his sons’ prep schools; these programs have provided financial assistance to more than 2200 young people from families of limited means since they were founded.
AfterDavis’s death in 1994, his wife Anna McConnell Warner Davis continued his legacy of philanthropy through her work with the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation; she passed away in July 2019 at the age of 101.
Shelby Davis’s Contributions to Philanthropy
Shelby Davis was a very successful businessman and philanthropist. He did a lot of work with the United Way and other charities. He was also a big supporter of the arts. He gave money to many different causes.
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Foundation
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Foundation is a private foundation that supports a variety of charitable causes. It was established in 1966 by Shelby Davis, a successful businessman and philanthropist. The Foundation is headquartered in New York City.
The Foundation’s mission is to “improve the quality of life for all people.” The Foundation supports a wide range of charitable causes, including education, the arts, healthcare, and human services.
The Foundation has made grants to many organizations, including the American Red Cross, the United Negro College Fund, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and the National Urban League.
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship is awarded to two students who have a demonstrated need for financial assistance and have met all other eligibility requirements. The award provides a renewable source of funding for up to four years of undergraduate study at an accredited institution.
Shelby Davis was a successful businessman and philanthropist who believed in the power of education to transform lives. In honor of his wife, Fredericka, Shelby established the scholarship to help students pursue their dreams regardless of their financial circumstances.
To date, the scholarship has helped more than 250 students realize their educational goals and potentially change the course of their lives.
The Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis Library
The Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis Library at Syracuse University is one of the finest research libraries in the world. It is a state-of-the-art facility that houses more than 2.6 million volumes and provides researchers with access to a wealth of online resources. The Library is also home to a number of special collections, including the Shelby Davis Collection of American History and the Frederick D. Evans Collection of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
The Library was made possible by a generous gift from Shelby Davis and his wife, Elizabeth. The Davises were passionate about education and believed that access to information should be available to everyone. Thanks to their generosity, the Library has become an invaluable resource for scholars from all over the world.
The Impact of Shelby Davis’s Philanthropy
Shelby Davis was a hedge fund manager and philanthropist who donated his fortune to various causes. His philanthropy had a profound impact on many people and organizations. Let’s take a look at how Shelby Davis’s philanthropy changed the world.
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Foundation
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Foundation was created in 2002 by Shelby and Frederick D. Davis. It is a private foundation that supports organizations working in the areas of education, healthcare, and the arts.
Since its inception, the foundation has awarded over $100 million in grants to organizations such as the American Red Cross, the United Negro College Fund, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In addition to its grant-making activities, the foundation also operates programs such as the Shelby Davis Scholarships, which provides financial assistance to students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds who wish to pursue higher education.
The foundation’s work is inspired by Shelby Davis’s lifelong commitment to giving back to her community and her belief that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to succeed. Through its grant-making and programmatic activities, the foundation strives to create opportunities for those who have been historically underserved and to level the playing field so that everyone has a fair chance at achieving their dreams.
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship
The Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship Foundation, created by Shelby and Frederick D. Davis in 1966, is a $50 million scholarship program that provides four-year grants to low-income students attending private colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Since its inception, the Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship Foundation has awarded over $290 million in scholarships to more than 11,000 students. The Foundation is one of the nation’s largest privately-funded scholarship programs for low-income students attending private colleges and universities.
The impact of Shelby Davis’s philanthropy has been far-reaching. In addition to increasing access to higher education for low-income students, the Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship Foundation has helped increase the number of underrepresented minorities attending private colleges and universities. The Foundation’s scholarship program has also been credited with helping to reduce the cost of attendance at private colleges and universities by an average of 20 percent.
In recent years, the Shelby and Frederick D. Davis Scholarship Foundation has come under criticism for its lack of transparency and accountability. Some have also questioned the foundation’s commitment to its stated mission of increasing access to higher education for low-income students. However, Shelby Davis’s philanthropy remains an important part of the American educational landscape.”
The Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis Library
In 2006, Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis made a generous gift of $5 million to the Library at Yale to be used as an endowment for the Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies. This endowment was given in honor of Yale President Richard C. Levin, who will retire in 2013 after two decades of leadership at Yale. The Frederick D. and Shelby Cullom Davis Library is one of the world’s leading research libraries, with over 15 million items in its collections. The Library is a vital resource for scholars from all over the world, and its collections include books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, films, and recordings.
