The Quiet Billionaire: How Phil Knight’s Giving Flies Under the Radar

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In 2018, Nike co-founder Phil Knight made news when an SEC filing revealed that he and his wife Penelope had given 12 million Nike shares to an unnamed charitable organization (it has recently been confirmed through regulatory filings that the stock went to the couple’s private foundation). At the time, the shares were worth $990 million—they’ve since ballooned to $1.25 billion. That gift is enough to propel the Knight Foundation to the status of the largest grantmaking entity in the state of Oregon, surpassing the Oregon Community Foundation with over $2 billion in Nike stock.   

Yet if you Google “Knight Foundation,” the only links you’ll find are to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Phil and Penelope Knight’s foundation has no website, no office space, zero employees and doesn’t do any press. When the Portland Business Journal published an article on the foundation (an eminently praiseworthy one, in fact), Knight declined to participate, even refusing to answer written questions.

That anonymity is indicative of Knight’s broader approach to giving, which defenders describe as thoughtful and strategic, but which some critics say is unimaginative or ineffective. “For the love of God, rich people, stop giving Stanford money,” declared a Vox headline after Knight gave $400 million to the elite university in 2018 for a fellowship program.

Despite being the 23rd richest person in the world, according to Forbes, the intensely private Knight has somehow managed to keep his giving mostly out of the public eye, and has shielded his foundation from scrutiny. Perhaps that’s why Knight’s philanthropy has thus far gone overlooked, especially in comparison to his multi-billionaire peers.

The Swoosh Factor

In the 1960s, Phil Knight was a Portland-based accountant selling Japanese running shoes out of his van in the Pacific Northwest. The Army veteran and Stanford Business School graduate mailed a pair of shoes to his former University of Oregon track coach, the legendary Bill Bowerman, and Bowerman was so impressed by the quality and low cost that he agreed to partner with Knight to create a similar U.S.-made product. The pair founded Blue Ribbon Sports, later renamed Nike.

The rest is a combination of sports and apparel history, all of which has conspired to make Knight worth a current $40.5 billion. And it was Bowerman’s influence that helped shape Knight’s approach to philanthropy. In his biography of Bowerman, fellow Bowerman protégé Kenny Moore explained that the coach made his athletes swear that when they donated to the university, they would give to a specific department like business, writing or biology—whatever made them happy—as opposed to dumping their money in the university pot (Knight ended up giving generously to all three).

Bowerman also preferred to give anonymously, even updating the computers at the University of Oregon in someone else’s name. That penchant clearly rubbed off on Knight, who has given as anonymously throughout his life as anyone of his stature can.

Phil’s Philanthropy

Knight first formalized his giving in 1990, when he established the Philip H. Knight Charitable Foundation Trust. Over the next seven years, the trust only gave away $6.5 million, yet Knight is believed to have given away far more through his personal estate. In 1994, he and Penelope gave $27.4 million to renovate the University of Oregon’s main library. Just two years later, they gave another $25 million to the University of Oregon for endowed chairs and professorships and to build a law school building.

As IP has previously reported, it was around this time that Knight began making large-scale grants, with a nearly $230 million grant to the University of Oregon’s athletics program, which was doled out between 1995 and 2005. He followed that up with a $100 million grant to the school's Athletics Legacy Fund in 2007. In 1999, Knight funded the construction of the Stanford University School of Business’ Knight Building and followed up that gift with another $100 million grant in 2006—Knight seems to enjoy tacking on $100 million gifts to his initial grantmaking efforts. In fact, in 2009, he followed up with yet another $100 million—this time, to establish an institute for training and fostering entrepreneurship in developing countries.

In 1997, Knight folded his charitable trust into the Knight Foundation, which he has now grown into the largest grantmaking entity in the state of Oregon. And the size of Knight’s largesse grew right alongside that of his foundation. In 2016, he donated $500 million to the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) for cancer research. The gift came on the heels of previous nine-figure grants used to build the school’s Knight Cancer Institute and to set up a cardiovascular institute at the university's hospital. By 2016, Knight’s giving had swung into full force, as he and Penelope granted a total of $900 million to his two alma maters— $500 million to the University of Oregon and $400 million to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. That presaged their gift of another $400 million to Stanford in 2018, as well as the 12 million in Nike shares to their foundation that same year.

Remember Those Sweatshops

As one might expect from any mega-giver, Knight’s grantmaking hasn’t come without its share of criticism. There are those who point out that Knight’s giving always seems to come with strings attached, such as the caveat that his $500 million gift to OHSU for cancer research be matched dollar for dollar. Knight also mandated that his $500 million pledge to the University of Oregon for a brand new science campus be matched—a stipulation that some allege sucked away time and resources from university fundraisers, who now felt compelled to fulfill the $500 million matching offer, which meant less fundraising for things like scholarships and health services.

A more bird’s-eye criticism of Knight’s philanthropy is that it reads as somewhat narrow. As one might expect from his resume, Knight’s two main issue areas have been education and sports and recreation, with cancer research coming in a close third. The University of Oregon, Stanford and OHSU are the big winners here, with a cluster of local nonprofits throughout the U.S. having received seven-figure grants, as well. Macon Children’s Hospital in Georgia, Fairmount Park Conservatory in Pennsylvania, and Downtown Akron Partnership in Ohio are all examples.

The scale of Knight’s giving makes him one of America’s top philanthropists. But what we haven’t yet seen from Knight is a clear, focused effort to tackle a large-scale problem facing America or the world, similar to Mike Bloomberg’s approach to climate change, or Bill Gates’ focus on improving global health. Instead, he’s so far taken the more conservative approach of bolstering institutions with which he has a personal connection.

Just Do It Already

Forbes estimates Knight’s cumulative lifetime giving at $3.7 billion, which accounts for just under 10 percent of his current wealth (bear in mind that Knight often gives anonymously, so Forbes’ estimate is probably low). While the 81-year old Knight hasn’t signed the Giving Pledge, he has stated numerous times that he plans to give away the bulk of his fortune. In 2016, he told CBS News that by the time his children and grandchildren reach the ends of their lives, he will have given away most of his wealth. That’s a long time from now, to be sure, but at the time of the interview, Knight was worth an estimated $25 billion. Nearly four years later, his net worth has soared 60 percent, making Knight yet another example of a mega-billionaire who just keeps getting richer, despite his apparent desire to get poorer through philanthropy; a phenomenon we’ve covered quite often.

In the end, a profile of Knight’s giving turns out to be a study in contrasts, however muted. Here is the purveyor of one of the most recognizable brands in the world, with perhaps the most recognizable corporate logo and tagline of all time, yet his philanthropy remains deeply private. While there is certainly something to be said for the nobility of anonymous giving, there is also something to be said for publicly tackling one of the many national or global issues that sorely needs addressing, and for inspiring the many billionaires who still aren’t giving in a serious way to do the same.

Phil Knight the businessman never had any problem energizing the next generation and enticing them to follow his vision. Phil Knight the philanthropist doesn’t seem nearly as interested.