The Nike founder’s private charity donated $190 million in 2023.
Phil Knight’s private foundation grew to $5 billion in 2023, a year in which it donated $190 million to Oregon causes and organizations.
The Oregonian reports the latest public filings show the Nike founder’s Knight Foundation donates to sources beyond typical philanthropic targets — Oregon universities and nonprofits — to antipoverty groups and a presidential foundation.
In 2023, the foundation grew by more than $1.2 billion over 2022, according to the latest financial filings with the Oregon Department of Justice, which has oversight over the state’s charities. The financials show that in 2023, the Knight Foundation was again the largest grant-making organization in the state with $190 million in grants made to other institutions.
The foundation has distributed nearly $1 billion since it was formed in 1997, though much of that was disbursed in recent years, the Oregonian reports. Personally, Knight and wife Penny have donated more than $3.6 billion to charity.
The Knights give $100 million per year and regularly contribute to universities and finding a cure for cancer, according to Knight’s 2016 memoir. In 2023, the foundation gave $20.5 million for the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, which the Knights have announced will receive $75 million from the foundation. The initiative seeks to study, delay and treat Alzheimer’s and neurodegenerative brain disease.
Knight is worth $34 billion, according to Forbes. His wealth peaked in 2021 when his net worth was nearly $50 billion, but he is still the richest person in Oregon.
Knight, 86, co-founded Nike with Bill Bowerman in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. Knight left the company’s board of directors in 2016. He and his family still own 20% of the $51 billion company.
Organizations that received funds from the Knight Foundation in 2023 include the Barack Obama Foundation, Stanford University’s Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program (which is the target of a $400 million gift), and the University of Oregon Foundation for the Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact (to which it has pledged $100 million). It continued to support the cardiology program at Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation, which received $7.5 million, Albina Head Start, which got $5 million, Self Enhancement Inc., which received $5 million, and the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund, which got $1 million.
The Knight family also announced in 2023 a $400 million gift to the 1803 Fund to rebuild the historically Black Albina neighborhood in Portland.
Out-of-state charitable targets include Blue Meridian Partners ($1.9 million) and the Stegner creative writing program at Stanford ($3.3 million).
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