Weinberg gifts help Hawai'i's ailing charities
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer
The fortune of a Hawai'i businessman has created more than a little Christmas cheer at Hawai'i charities.
With a $200,000 emergency donation to The Hawai'i Foodbank, the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has continued a legacy of civic-minded charity and what has become something of a tradition of surprise year-end giving.
Dick Grimm, president of The Hawai'i Foodbank, said it was the second consecutive year the Weinberg Foundation came to the rescue with an unsolicited gift.
"They realize the conditions of the market, and they are so in tune with what is going on in the community," Grimm said.
In the last month, the Weinberg Foundation has pledged matching donations of as much as $200,000 to the Salvation Army for its Christmas red kettle drive, as much as $240,000 in matching donations to Aloha United Way for its annual fundraising drive and $100,000 to the Advertiser's Christmas Fund and KITV's "Adopt a Family" program, which go to Helping Hands Hawai'i.
"All I can say is, thank God for the Weinberg Foundation," said Kelvin H. Taketa, president and chief executive of the Hawai'i Community Foundation, a statewide charitable services and grant-making institution.
Harry Weinberg, a tycoon with a reputation for tight-fistedness during his lifetime, left a legacy never before seen in Hawai'i when he died. His foundation has donated more than $1 million a month, nearly $15 million annually since Weinberg's death in 1990 at age 82.
The foundation has donated to more than 300 charities across the state, usually to help the poorest of the poor.
"It's a remarkable gift to Hawai'i," Taketa said. "And they've done it quietly. They're incredibly generous."
Despite its well-known generosity, the foundation remains tight-lipped when it comes to promotion. Employees don't comment on donations, but simply allow receiving agencies to make announcements if they wish. Employees simply say donations are made because there is need.
Weinberg's $900 million fortune began helping Hawai'i's nonprofit organizations feed the elderly, teach the disabled and care for the needy just as hard economic times began in the 1990s.
His family emigrated from Austria to Baltimore, where Weinberg and his five brothers and sisters ate at soup kitchens or sometimes went without food.
The hungry child grew into a ruthless businessman. Weinberg's early riches stem from a strategy repeated across the country, including in Honolulu: Gain control of a big-city bus system, cut union wages, force a strike that paralyzes transportation, then sell to the city for a higher price. He eventually bought stock of other large companies and took control.
Through real estate holdings, stock and securities, his empire grew to $900 million.
Weinberg bought his first Hawai'i home, along Kaua'i's Hanalei Bay, in 1956 and grew to love the Islands during the next 30 years.
Jeanette Weinberg died in 1989, one year before her husband.
Five trustees — three in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania and one in Honolulu — control his money.
Each year, $15 million stays in Hawai'i, while another $40 million is spread around the Mainland.
With donations falling at Hawai'i charities, officials say the Weinberg Foundation gifts have given a happy ending to a tough year.
The Hawai'i Foodbank collects, warehouses and distributes perishable and nonperishable food to help feed Hawai'i's hungry.
While demand for its services has increased, the charity is having a harder time raising money. In the last fiscal year, it distributed a million more pounds of food than the year before, but a recent direct-mail fund-raising campaign is about 25 percent off from 2000.
Before the Weinberg Foundation stepped in with $240,000, the Aloha United Way worried about missing this year's fund-raising goal.
The charity supports 64 agencies that depend on it to provide for vulnerable members of the community. A variety of factors led the group to cut its goal by 15 percent from 2001.
At the Salvation Army, five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, along with the weak economy, have meant fewer people dropping spare change into the red kettles outside shopping centers.
"The $200,000 from the Weinberg Foundation is heaven-sent," said Daniel DeCastro, community relations director with the Salvation Army.
Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
