$15B from Gates, French Gates tops 2021 biggest gift list.
Highlight
- It was a healthy year for big gifts to charitable causes in 2021
- Bill Gates, Melinda announce divorce and then give their foundation a jaw-dropping $15 billion
- The funds will strengthen its endowment and support the grant maker’s work in Global Health
It was a healthy year for large gifts to charitable causes in 2021, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy tally, a year that saw the largest multi-billion dollar contribution in more than a decade.
Power philanthropists Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates announced in May that they were divorcing and then gave their foundation a jaw-dropping $15 billion in July. The money will boost its endowment and support future grantmaker work in global health, development, policy and advocacy, and American education.
The gift raised the grantmaker’s endowment to nearly $65 billion and is the largest funding Gates has funded the foundation since 2000, when he valued Microsoft stock at $20 million.
When they announced this year’s gift, the two philanthropists indicated that they planned to continue running the foundation together for some time, but announced through the foundation that two years later, if either of them Decides not to work together if French Gates will resign as co. Chair and trustee.
Regardless, the philanthropists clarified in two new Giving Pledge letters that they both intend to give bigger in the years to come.
French Gates wrote that she would continue to support efforts to fight poverty and “advance equality for women and girls and other marginalized groups”. Gates wrote in his Giving Pledge letter that the foundation’s work will continue to be his “top philanthropic priority” and he plans to increase his contributions in other areas, such as “mitigating climate change and combating Alzheimer’s.”
Nonprofits that focus on those causes are likely to receive big prizes, given that Bill Gates’ net worth is estimated at around $137 billion and Melinda French Gates at $6 billion.
Meanwhile, a $500 million contribution from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, to the University of Oregon, came second on the list. The gift will be used to expand the Phil and Penny Knight campuses to accelerate scientific impact and follows a $500 million donation given by Knights to launch the science campus in 2016. Knight Campus aims to accelerate the process of converting new scientific discoveries into medicine. treatments and other developments to improve people’s lives.
Phil Knight, who has a net worth of around $60 billion, earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the university in 1959. The couple has given the university at least $1.6 billion so far.
Also tied for No. 2 is a $500 million challenge given by financier George Soros through his Open Society Foundation for its endowment to Bard College. The pledge aims to persuade other donors to support the college’s effort to raise $1 billion over the next five years.
College officials announced in April that the pledge had already helped them raise $250 million from other donors. Soros, whose net worth is estimated at $8.6 billion, founded Soros Fund Management, a New York-based firm that manages hedge funds.
Next on the list is a $480 million donation to Northwestern University from Patrick Ryan, founder of Ryan Specialty Group, an insurance services company, and his wife, Shirley. Ryan, who has a net worth of around $8 billion, gave money to his alma mater for various programs.
The money will support education and research efforts in the Applied Microeconomics, Business, Digital Medicine, Global Health, Neuroscience and Translational Research programs at the university’s Feinberg School of Medicine. A portion of the gift will also pay for construction projects.
The Chronicle’s annual Top 10 list of the largest gifts announced by individuals or their foundations totaled more than $18.1 billion in 2021. (The 2021 list actually includes 11 charities due to ties.) Contributions to the 2021 list went mainly to well-established institutions. , Of the 11 gifts, eight are from billionaires with a net worth of $426.3 billion.
The Chronicle’s annual ranking is based on the 10 biggest publicly announced gifts. The tally does not include artwork or gift contributions from anonymous donors. In February, the Chronicle will unveil its annual ranking of the 50 largest donors, a list based on the total contributions of individuals in 2021, rather than on single gifts.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s list of the top 10 greatest gifts:
1. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures, an investment firm, gave $15 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for an endowment.
2. (tie) Nike co-founder Philip Knight and his wife Penny gave $500 million to the University of Oregon to expand the Phil and Penny Knight campus to accelerate scientific impact.
2. (tie) George Soros, President of Soros Fund Management, gave $500 million in endowment to Bard College through his Open Society Foundation
4. Patrick Ryan, founder of Ryan Specialty Group, an insurance services company, and his wife Shirley gave Northwestern University $480 million for various programs.
5. Denny Sanford, president of the United National Corporation Sanford Health, gives $350 million to set up a virtual-care hospital
6. United National Corporation Sanford Health President Denny Sanford Provides $300 Million for Undergraduate Medical Education and Expansion of a Sports Complex
7. William Goodwin Jr., a real-estate developer, his wife, Alice, and their late son, Hunter, gave $250 million to establish Break Through Cancer, a foundation that will support cancer research
8. Alibaba Group co-founder Joe Tsai and professional sports teams co-owner Clara Wu Tsai through their Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation for $220 million to establish the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a medical research nonprofit lamps.
9. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gives $200 million to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for an education center and museum renovations
10. Gerald Chan, co-founder of Morningside Group, an investment firm, gave $175 million in endowment to the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School through his Morningside Foundation.
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