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PBS Drive

By ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
June 24, 2005; Page W2

Jeff Skoll, former president of eBay, is the main backer of a new TV documentary about "social entrepreneurs" -- a loose term describing people who get personally involved or who invent products or programs to help solve social ills.

GIFT OF THE WEEK

⁰

Read about Li Ka-Shing's $40 million donation⁰ to the University of California, Berkeley.

The four-part PBS program, "The New Heroes," narrated by Robert Redford, premieres Tuesday. It profiles 14 individuals, such as the British-American duo who developed a human-powered water pump (it operates like a StairMaster) to help African farmers irrigate their land.

Mr. Skoll, 40 years old, who says he is worth $3.5 billion, "depending on the day," gave $1.7 million last year to Oregon Public Broadcasting to produce the show. He says the documentary was his idea. Having already met with Mr. Redford in 2004 to discuss social entrepreneurship, Mr. Skoll later enlisted the actor as narrator for "Heroes."

Children playing outside an SOS children's village in Bali.

Separately, Mr. Skoll runs a production company that focuses on documentaries and features that address social issues. (One 2005 release: "Syriana," a feature film about the oil industry, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon.) He's also committed $200,000 to promote "Heroes" and pledged $100,000 to match donations made through a Web site, http://www.thenewheroes.org/¹, that raises awareness for the nonprofits featured in the show.

Hilton Helps

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is pledging to donate $1 million in the fall to the international child welfare group SOS Children's Villages. The money will go to support kids in India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia orphaned by last December's tsunami.

Started by hotelier Conrad Hilton in 1944, the foundation has five of his family members on the board and assets of about $800 million. In accordance with Mr. Hilton's will, the foundation tends to focus on long-term projects that benefit children and others in need. It first gave to SOS in 2002, awarding the Austrian-based nonprofit its $1 million "Hilton Humanitarian Prize" for helping alleviate human suffering. In that case, Hilton was honoring SOS's work in 132 countries, including the U.S., building villages for orphans.

The new gift will help support two new villages that SOS is building for tsunami orphans, one in Indonesia and one in Sri Lanka. The money will also pay for long-term care, including food, clothing and education of other tsunami orphans in the region.

• Have any thoughts on this Giving Back column? Write to Elizabeth Bernstein at mailto:%20givingback@wsj.com²

Gift of the Week

Chinese Medicine

WHO GAVE IT: Mr. Li Ka-Shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, an international conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong.

WHO GOT IT: University of California, Berkeley.

HOW MUCH: $40 million

BY REQUEST: The gift will support a new building, as well as research in cancer, infectious diseases, neuroscience and stem cells.

YOUR NAME HERE: The Li Ka-Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences.

HOW IT HAPPENED: Mr. Li, one of the richest men in Asia, receives an average of 200 requests for grants a day through his foundation. He has no personal connection to Berkeley -- his sons went to Stanford -- but the school asked him a few years ago to fund scholarships for Asian students and a professorship in health management. (He did, giving about $1.4 million.) Mr. Li, who is 76 years old, chose Berkeley for this gift in part because it is a public school, according to his spokeswoman. While developing this gift, university administrators and scientists met with Mr. Li and his staff about 15 times -- and finally asked him for $40 million in seed money for this center. Before making the pledge, his staff met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who assured them that he is committed to bringing further stem-cell research to California. Mr. Li's donation is the largest international gift Berkeley has ever received.

--E.B.

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