The donation was said to honor Hunt for her longstanding support of the United Way and its foundation, whose endowment stood at a little more than $20 million when the Unite Forever campaign was announced in February.
The Hunt gift represents the biggest commitment to the fundraising drive so far.
“Our grandmother has been an extraordinary example of volunteerism and hard work,” Haven Sands Heinrichs, trustee of the Rosewood Foundation, said in a news release. “To show our family’s love and appreciation for all she has done for United Way and the community, we are making [this] legacy gift in her honor … We are delighted to carry the torch, and hope to inspire the next generation in our community to get involved.”
Caroline Rose Hunt, whose Rosewood Corp. is responsible for Dallas landmarks like The Mansion on Turtle Creek and the 1.1-million-square-foot Crescent complex, has been involved with United Way for more than five decades. The UT grad went door to door soliciting donations for the nonprofit, served as co-chair of its Alexis de Tocqueville Giving Society in 1990 and 1994, and currently serves as an honorary chair of the Unite Forever Campaign.
Led by co-chairs Ruth Sharp Altshuler, Ed Galante, and Roger Staubach, the $100 million foundation campaign had already raked in $26 million before the Hunt gift from a variety of donors who ponied up $1 million or more. Those donors included such prominent local philanthropists as Diane and Hal Brierley, Lyda Hill, Margot and Ross Perot/The Perot Foundation, The Eugene McDermott Foundation, and Betty and Gerard Regard.
Jennifer Sampson, president and CEO of the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, said the agency was grateful to the Hunt grandchildren for their “generous” donation. “Each generation in our history has been led by change makers like Caroline Rose Hunt, who not only believed change was possible, but who made it happen,” Sampson said in the news release.
