What’s Next for Miriam Adelson’s Philanthropy? Nobody Seems to Know

David Azagury / U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When self-made casino mogul, Republican mega-donor and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson died in January at age 87 from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, he was worth $35 billion.

In June, Adelson’s widow Dr. Miriam Adelson was appointed the executor of his estate. The appointment made the 75-year-old, Israeli-born physician the major shareholder in the Las Vegas Sands Corp., the business her late husband founded in 1988. According to Forbes, Dr. Adelson’s fortune is currently estimated at $29.5 billion.

The Adelsons are notorious for their support of Republican candidates and super PACs, among a handful of mega-donors who have had tremendous influence on the direction of the GOP and American politics over the years. As Inside Philanthropy has previously reported, “Adelson was the largest single donor in the 2012 elections, spending $93 million. In the 2018 election cycle, Adelson and his wife Miriam donated more than $123 million to conservative politicians. And in this most recent election cycle, the couple gave $218 million.”

Additionally, “Adelson donated $25 million to the Trump presidential campaign in the 2016 election, and a whopping $5 million to the committee organizing the inauguration festivities.”

Yet, the Adelsons are also well-known for their philanthropy. In fact, they’ve supported so many charitable organizations—a review of their 990 for 2019 listed 85—and move so much money—$116 million in both 2018 and 2019—that it’s hard to imagine what would become of these charities if Dr. Adelson decided to reduce or significantly change her grantmaking.

Through their Adelson Family Foundation, the couple has given generously to Jewish organizations such as Birthright Israel, which finances trips to Israel for young adults; B’nai B’rith Youth, a pluralistic program for Jewish teens; Yad Vashem, Israel’s monument to the Holocaust; and a host of Jewish educational and social service institutions in the United States and Israel.

The couple has also made grants for research into life-threatening diseases through the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation. The foundation encourages collaboration between biomedical researchers to speed up health innovation and bring critical medical products to market. AMRF focuses its grantmaking on the areas of cancer research, neural repair and rehabilitation and immunological diseases, and has funded such institutions as Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the John Wayne Cancer Center.

Considering the scope of the Adelsons’ giving, their foundations are remarkably lean as far as staffing and trustees are concerned. The foundation’s 990s for 2018 and 2019 list only Sheldon Adelson and Dr. Miriam Adelson as trustees and Michael Bohnen as foundation president. Bohnen has been with the Adelson Foundation since 2007. Before that, he was a corporate attorney with Boston firm Nutter, McClennen & Fish for 34 years. The foundation has no endowment and none of the couple’s five children sit on the board of directors.

Since she took charge of her late husband’s estate, nonprofits and philanthropic communities in the United States and Israel alike are surely waiting anxiously to see what Dr. Adelson’s funding priorities will be.

It is customary for observant Jews such as Dr. Adelson to spend the year following a loved one’s death by keeping a low profile. That might help to explain why Adelson’s widow has been quiet on that front for the past 10 months. But what’s curious to me is that it appears as if no one is minding the shop.

In an attempt to learn about Dr. Adelson’s funding plans, I made many attempts to reach her and/or her representatives. This proved difficult, and in most cases, impossible.

The Adelson Family Foundation has no contact information for media relations staff on its website. My email to the foundation’s general mailbox went unanswered. Likewise, my email to the Adelson Medical Research Foundation received no response. I was able to leave messages with receptionists at the Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse Treatment and Research in Las Vegas, yet no one returned my calls.

I reached out to the Adelson Family Foundation’s President Michael Bohnen on LinkedIn and received a response of “no comment.” Several other foundation staff members I contacted through LinkedIn did not respond to my messages at all. It is possible, of course, that they did not see or receive my messages or connection requests.

After my failed attempts to reach representatives of the Adelson foundations and the Adelson Clinic, I tried to reach media relations representatives from three of the Jewish organizations that the Adelsons have supported in the past. I wanted to get their perspectives and to see if they knew anything about Dr. Adelson’s funding priorities. The public relations company that represents Birthright Israel promised to ask staff there if they would be willing to speak with me, but there was no follow-up from the PR agency or the organization.

A media relations professional at Yad Vashem responded to my inquiry by sending a copy of the institution’s newsletter containing an obituary of Sheldon Adelson.

Finally, an email to Reichman University in Israel, where the couple founded the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, also went unanswered.

Despite Dr. Adelson’s silence on matters related to philanthropy, as Politico reported, she did surface on November 7 to hold meetings in her Las Vegas residence with Republican leaders and prospective 2022 and 2024 candidates, continuing a long-running tradition of conservative candidates seeking the donors’ backing, often referred to as the “Adelson primary.” 

The meetings, which reportedly included sit-downs with such figures as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Rick Scott, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, took place simultaneously with the Republican Jewish Coalition conference that was held at the Venetian—an Adelson-built property on the Las Vegas strip. The talks appeared to signal Dr. Adelson’s plans to continue her support and her influence on the Republican Party.

But as far as Adelson’s substantial philanthropy for Jewish causes and medical research goes, anyone’s guess is as good as ours. It’s possible funding has continued as usual, albeit quietly. Or maybe grantees don’t even know, and nobody wants to risk losing support. Either way, the stakes are high.

Perhaps we will hear more from Dr. Adelson or her representatives soon. But for now, Inside Philanthropy and the broader philanthropic community waits for answers, or the next 990s.