Hands-On Philanthropists (With Strings)

Florida billionaires Daniel and Peter Lewis are hands-on arts patrons. Daniel pledged $16 million towards the Florida Philharmonic’s $64 million endowment campaign. But when the orchestra failed to raise supporting capital, he insisted the orchestra be shut down. “The Lewis brothers share a conviction that the arts and other nonprofits must be financially sound – an elusive ideal to nearly every arts group – or be dramatically reconfigured, or even shut down. It is an ideal on which neither of the Lewis brothers seems willing to budge.”