Amount donated in 2013: $500-million
Beneficiary: Oregon Health & Science University Foundation
Background: Mr. Knight is a co-founder and the chairman of Nike.
Last April, Constance French, senior vice president of Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, and Brian Druker, director of OHSU’s Knight Cancer Center, approached Phil Knight to ask for $500-million for a 20-year project to expand research and early detection of deadly cancers. At first the philanthropist grew quiet, then he pretended to fall out of his chair.
“He thought we were going to ask him for $100-million,” said Ms. French. “I told him we were going big and audacious.”
Mr. Knight, 75, said he’d think about it. Mr. Druker and Ms. French called on Mr. Knight twice more in the following months, and the presidents of both the university and the foundation visited him in August. Mr. Knight then suggested accelerating the project to 10 years and said he would continue mulling their request.
In September, there was another visit, this time from all four. Mr. Knight said he liked the idea but remained noncommittal. The officials figured it would take many more months to convince Mr. Knight that the project was worth such a large donation.
Then suddenly, at a September 20 OHSU event, Mr. Knight stood up and announced that he and his wife would give the $500-million on condition that university officials would raise an additional $500-million from other donors in two years.
This time it was Mr. Druker who nearly fell off his chair. The offer and caveat to match the pledge, said Mr. Druker, were both “daunting and exhilarating at the same time.”
Since then, OHSU officials have been busily cultivating donations from other donors.
The money will endow the project and go toward recruiting top faculty and more research staff, giving scholarships to graduate students, paying for new equipment and more clinical trials, beefing up the program’s computational biology work, and supporting other project needs.
While Mr. and Ms. Knight took their time deciding whether to make the pledge, the couple, neither of whom attended the university, clearly have faith in it. They pledged $125-million to OHSU in 2012 for a cardiovascular institute, and they gave $100-million in 2008 for the university’s cancer institute, bringing their total commitment to OHSU to at least $725-million in just five years.
The Philanthropy 50: Browse the full list of America’s most generous donors in 2013.
Learn more: See this donor’s listing in our database of major gifts, America’s Top Donors.
