Alan G. Hassenfeld

Children need toys. Hasbro Inc., based in Pawtucket, has that angle covered.

Children also need healthy food, strong families, good medical care and economically thriving communities. Alan G. Hassenfeld, a son of the family that founded Hasbro, is into his sixth decade of working on that challenge.

Hassenfeld, 67, the retired chairman and CEO of Hasbro, a 93-year-old toymaker with a worldwide reach, as well as chairman of Hassenfeld Family Initiatives LLC, takes philanthropy very seriously.

The Hassenfeld and Hasbro names are all over Rhode Island institutions that are working to improve the health and well-being of children, families and the state’s economy. One example is Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence. In 2012, a gift of $1 million to Bryant University supported the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership. And last year Hassenfeld gave $12.5 million to co-found, with Brown University, the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute with the goal of working collaboratively on children’s health problems.

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Hassenfeld learned about philanthropy as a child, over the family dining table. Like his late father, Merrill, he declines to give to endowments. He says he wants his money to go to work now, as a catalyst and “living philanthropy.” He has said, “We create the future; we don’t walk into it.”

Hassenfeld shuns political activity, but has strong opinions about his home state, recently stating flatly that Rhode Island needs to clean up its unethical “pay to play” reputation; to rein in excessive regulation and taxes; and to unite an alphabet soup of nonprofits to work more cooperatively. •

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