Minneapolis foundation gives $950K to Yale theater

Yale Repertory Theater announced on Monday that it had received a $950,000 gift from the Robina Foundation, a Minnesota-based nonprofit group. The gift will go toward supporting the Yale Center for New Theater.

In a community where we often hear the names McKnight, Jerome and Bush bandied about when it comes to philanthropy and the arts, Robina may come as a relative unknown. And there's a reason for that. The foundation, created by James H. Binger, was set up to support just four institutions: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, The Council on Foreign Relations, University of Minnesota Law School, and Yale University.

However folks close to the funding world will readily recognize the Binger name. James H. Binger married Virginia McKnight, the daughter of William and Maude McKnight, of the McKnight Foundation. Several Binger family members currently serve on the McKnight Foundation board.

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