Fundraising & Campaigns
Foster and Coco Stanback give Caltech and JPL $27.5 million for a makerspace and hypersonics
Of the total, $20 million came through the Foundation for the Carolinas to build a prototyping shop at JPL. The other $7.5 million rebuilds a hypersonics lab.
By The Editors · The Game of Giving
Philanthropists Foster and Coco Stanback have given $27.5 million to Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for a new prototyping makerspace and a larger hypersonic research lab, Caltech announced on October 28.
JPL is the NASA laboratory that Caltech manages. The gift comes in two parts, according to Caltech's announcement: $20 million given through the Foundation for the Carolinas, and a separate $7.5 million.
What does the gift pay for?
Mostly people and equipment at JPL, with the rest for a campus lab. The table is our breakdown of the two gifts as Caltech described them.
| Gift | Share | What it funds |
|---|---|---|
| $20 million, through the Foundation for the Carolinas | 73% | The New Space Makerspace at JPL, near its Microdevices Laboratory, with fabrication and chip-to-board assembly equipment, plus Caltech-led education and workforce programs, including a Makerspace Fellows Program |
| $7.5 million | 27% | Renovating and expanding Caltech's hypersonic research facility, a new shock tube that can reach higher temperatures and speeds than the current T5 tunnel, and safer emergency exits |
The fellows program will train students, postdocs and interns, including interns from community colleges and other technical programs, alongside JPL staff, Caltech said. The makerspace is meant for building prototypes that can be tested in the field or in flight. "These gifts will be powerful catalysts for advancing leading-edge research," said Caltech President Ray Jayawardhana in the announcement.
Who are the Stanbacks to Caltech?
Repeat donors. In 2015 they committed funds to establish Caltech's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies, and they have also supported graduate fellowships, operating costs for the student rocketry group PARSEC, and the Frank J. Malina Laboratory for High-Speed Flight Dynamics, which Caltech says is scheduled to open next year.
Why would a gift come through a community foundation?
Often because the donor keeps a fund there. The Foundation for the Carolinas is a community foundation, and community foundations commonly hold donor-advised funds (DAFs), accounts where a donor takes a tax deduction when money goes in and later recommends grants. Caltech's announcement says only that the $20 million came through the foundation. We have not seen how the gift was structured, and the announcement does not say whether a DAF was used.
What can development offices take from it?
In our view, two things. First, when a gift arrives from a sponsoring foundation, that foundation is the legal grantor, so the gift agreement, the acknowledgment and any naming terms need to line up with it as well as with the family, as in UC Irvine's $23 million Singleton gift. Second, the split itself is a model: one gift for a building and equipment, another for the people trained to use them, each with its own purpose and reporting.
General information for donors and nonprofit leaders, not legal or tax advice. How we report is set out in our editorial guide.
