Nike Co-founder Phil Knight Gives $900 Million to His Foundation

Nike co-founder Phil Knight funneled 7,250,000 shares of Nike Class B stock, valued at $900.7 million, into an unnamed charity late last month, according to an SEC document filed yesterday. A spokesman for Knight confirmed the donation was given to the Knight Foundation, which he and his wife, Penelope, established in 1997.

The Beaverton, Ore., foundation’s assets stood at slightly more than $2 billion at the end of 2018, according to the foundation’s most recent tax filing, and it awarded about $40 million in grants that year. Knight added nearly $50 million to the grant maker in 2019.

In addition, Knight quietly gave $300 million to the University of Oregon, his alma mater, on September 30, for ongoing support for many of the university’s programs to which he has donated in recent years. Paul Weinhold, president of the University of Oregon Foundation, confirmed the donation.

The Knights have been donating huge sums to nonprofits for the last 25 years, with most of their giving going to universities. With this latest donation, they’ve made charitable contributions totaling at least $3 billion. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 report of the most-generous donors seven times.

They have directed several of their largest gifts to the University of Oregon, Phil Knight’s alma mater. The couple have donated at least $1.1 billion to the university since 2007, with much of it directed to scientific research and related programs. He earned a journalism degree from the university in 1959.

The Knights have also donated $725 million to Oregon Health & Science University since 2008 for cancer and cardiovascular institutes, and for a cancer research program. In 2016 they gave $400 million to Stanford University to create Knight-Hennessy Scholars, a graduate program aimed at preparing a new generation of global leaders, and in 2006, the couple gave Stanford Graduate School of Business $105 million, primarily to build the Knight Management Center, which opened in 2011. Knight earned an MBA from the business school in 1962.