The $60 million donation by Ernest Rady creates a new reality for San Diego County as far charitable support is concerned.  “We have jumped into the big leagues of charitable giving,” said Kelly.

According to Donald Fellows of Marts and Lundy, a New Jersey-headquartered fundraising consulting firm to nonprofits, San Diego is finally showing signs of growing up as far as the city’s philanthropic community is concerned.

“It was sort of like San Diego hadn’t grown up yet from a philanthropic standpoint,” said Fellows. “That has clearly changed.”

For many years San Diego County has lagged behind other regions as recipients of philanthropic generosity.  Since the late 1990s San Diego has experienced a large increase in the number of donations exceeding $10 million. At the end of the ‘90s San Diego began to benefit from the stock market boom plus many more wealthy people began moving into the area. In addition, the widow of the founder of McDonald’s, Joan Kroc, made an $80 million donation to the San Diego branch of the Salvation Army, which many believe helped turn the tide for philanthropic giving in San Diego.

San Diego is hopeful that this donation will be the spark to light a new wave of large donations into the San Diego region.

Rady has given generously in the past. The University of California in San Diego was the recipient of Rady’s largesse in 2004 in the amount of 30 million dollars, and created the Rady School of Management.

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Rady Children's Hospital

Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center located in San Diego, California, acts as a safety net medical center for the region.  Children with little or no medical insurance are not turned away from Rady Children’s Hospital and more than half of the children they serve are in this category.

Rady Children’s Hospital is the teaching hospital for UCSD School of Medicine as well as for the Navy. The hospital also acts as the region’s major clinical research facility. Pediatric subspecialties are available at the hospital including Hematology/Oncology, Cardiology, Cardiovascular Surgery and many others.

Harry Rady, of Rady Asset Management is active in support of philanthropic activities at Children’s Hospital, including being on the Investment Committee of the Children’s Hospital and Health Center.

Frustrating a six-week Wall Street rally, the stock market suffered a 3.5% loss last Monday, April 20, 2009. The recent decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday will be the worst one day decline since the beginning of March when the Average reached its lowest point in 12 years.

Adding to the downturn was a 23% drop in Bank of America. Despite announcing a net income increase in the first quarter of more than triple, including the purchase of Merril Lynch recently adding more than 3 billion dollars to its bottom line, B of A still experienced a net loss due to a rise in “charge-offs” and huge losses in its credit-card business.

For more complete discussion of this issue you may follow the link to: ‘U.S. Stocks Lower as Banking Concerns Lead to Broad Sell-Off.’

Rady Children Hospital & Health Center is the regional pediatric medical center serving San Diego, and Imperial & south Riverside counties. Each year the Children’s Hospital cares for approximately 100,000 children who are provided medical care (both at the main campus or at one of its 28 satellite facilities).

Rady is a very active philanthropist. He is on the Children’s Hospital and Health Center’s Investment Committee, and also one of the directors of the California Board of Child Help USA. Additionally, Harry Rady is on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego, where he is also a member of their Executive Mentor Program.