These Third-Generation Walton Heirs Have Been Pumping Big Bucks Into Their Foundations

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on July 17, 2023.

Three third-generation Walton heirs more than doubled their foundations’ assets in 2021, another step toward philanthropic prominence for the younger generation of America’s richest family.

Brothers Ben and Sam Walton, along with their cousin James Walton, each sent more than $200 million to their philanthropies that year, according to newly available tax filings. The deposits grew their still low-profile operations — Zoma Foundation, Catena Foundation and Wend Collective, respectively — and considering the often liberal and progressive nature of their grantmaking, also served to grow the left-leaning wing of the billionaire clan’s network of philanthropies.

The causes the trio backed in 2021 are the latest evidence of growing ideological divergence from earlier generations of heirs to the Walmart retail empire, with checks going to transgender rights, Black-led grassroots movements, immigrant advocacy and climate change activism.

These new contributions, which ranged in size from $203 million to $307 million, left each of these operations with more assets than they’ve ever had in their history. The contributions by Ben, Sam and James to their foundations would have put them among America’s top 25 biggest donors in 2021, based on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s criteria for its annual Philanthropy 50. The amounts rival that year’s giving by well-known philanthropists like Charles Koch and John and Laura Arnold.

Yet the three foundations’ potential — as the giving vehicles of a billionaire dynasty’s scions — still far outweighs what’s actually going out the door. The trio made a combined $75 million in grants in 2021, less than a ninth of what the Walton Family Foundation distributed that year.

The three foundations also remain largely out of sight. Only one, Ben Walton’s Zoma Foundation, has a website. All three declined requests for interviews or to respond to a list of questions, though the executive director of Sam Walton’s Catena Foundation, Clare Bastable, shared a statement.

While the three foundations remain small, such first steps have led to big things elsewhere in the Waltonverse. Over the last few years, Lukas Walton, a cousin of the trio, has put hundreds of millions of dollars into his foundation, Builders Initiative, which had nearly $1.3 billion in assets as of its last tax filing, not to mention a website. He’s put his focus on the environment, specifically food and agriculture, climate and energy, and oceans, and is already one of the nation’s top 20 green funders. If his cousins continue pumping dollars into their foundations on this scale, they too could reach such heights.

Who’s cashing the checks from these heirs?

While Ben, Sam and James aren’t yet giving at the level of some of their relatives, $75 million is still a good bit of coin, and there’s certainly a lot more where that came from. Here’s a sampling of the nonprofits and causes that benefited in 2021.

To start with, Ben and Lucy Ana Walton’s Zoma Foundation, which is part of a larger family office operation called ZOMALAB, continued to send support to a wide range of Colorado-based groups, its Chilean sister foundation, and organizations focused on early childhood and maternal wellbeing, as I covered in a profile last year.

The environment also won major support, building on past grantmaking, yet remains outside the outfit’s stated priorities. The largest award by far of Zoma’s nearly $13 million in grants in 2021 was a $5 million check for Tompkins Conservation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that combats biodiversity loss and climate change in Argentina and Chile. Another top recipient was Western Resource Advocates, a Nevada-based environmental nonprofit.

Like his younger brother Ben, Sam Walton sent some of his largest 2021 checks to environmental groups. The 55-year-old’s Catena Foundation backed well-known groups like the Environmental Defense Fund ($1.7 million) and Western Resource Advocates ($1.6 million). Catena’s smaller checks showed support for immigration reform, refugee support, tribal watershed projects, clean energy and “protecting democracy,” according to its 990.

In total, the Carbondale, Colorado-based foundation, which Sam leads as president, sent out almost $24 million in 2021. One of its other largest awards was $2 million to a low-profile, Raleigh-based nonprofit, State Leadership Project, that supports professional leadership for donor networks focused on civic participation.

“Our focus at the Catena Foundation has always been the important work of our grantees,” read a statement from Executive Director Clare Bastable. “Contributions reflect this focus and enable us to support important leaders and organizations.”

Meanwhile, James Walton’s Wend Collective — legally known as Wend II Inc — gave out more than his two cousins’ operations combined in 2021, or about $38 million. The foundation supported a wide-ranging and nation-spanning set of groups and causes. The list included Oakland-based Greenlining Institute ($2 million); an education nonprofit called Great Work in the Waltons’ hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas ($1.9 million); the Minneapolis Montessori micro-school network Wildflower Schools ($1.8 million); and the Boston-based anti-war group Beyond Conflict ($1.6 million).

The 35-year-old’s smaller grants were just as varied, including a transgender legal center, individual Montessori schools, Native groups and a range of Colorado-based groups, including a Denver-based LGBTQ+ organization called Joy as Resistance.

Wend may get the new money out the door in a hurry. The foundation, whose team is based in Denver, had nearly spent all its assets in the years preceding the 2021 contribution.

Green, liberal and growing

For now, the $8 billion Walton Family Foundation remains by far the largest of the philanthropies founded by the Arkansas clan. But these new moves bring the foundations of these third-generation heirs closer in size to those of their parents and older relatives, despite drastic differences in their known wealth.

For instance, Ben and Lucy Ana Walton’s $307 million contribution to their Zoma Foundation brought its assets to $565 million as of the end of 2021. Compare that to the grantmaking operation of Ben’s 78-year-old father, who had $692 million in his philanthropy that year. Forbes puts Rob Walton’s fortune at $64 billion.

Then there’s James Walton’s Wend Collective, which, despite spending nearly all of its assets in prior years, now has about a quarter of the assets of the Town Branch Foundation, a largely under-the-radar philanthropy controlled by his parents, Jim and Lynne Walton, whose wealth is estimated at $67 billion.

Even with these new infusions, all three outfits still remain a long way short of mega-philanthropy status, both in assets and grantmaking. Nor do their philanthropic profiles yet measure up to other younger members of (less-wealthy) billionaire philanthropist families, such the Pritzkers and Simonses.

But when you come from America’s richest family, whose wealth is said to total $247 billion, any philanthropic ramp-up offers a critical window into where that fortune — and its influence — may eventually be directed. And keep in mind that there are a lot of possibilities other than philanthropy. After all, this is a family that just dropped $4.65 billion to buy the Denver Broncos, in a bid led by Rob Walton.

On the grantmaking front, these operations’ growing green grantmaking is notable, if no surprise. The Walton Family Foundation and cousin Lukas’ Builders Initiative already are two of the largest environmental grantmakers in the country.

The left-leaning nature of much of these heirs’ grantmaking was already apparent in prior years, and tracks with the usual trend of later generations of large, wealthy families skewing more liberal than their parents. This batch of giving feels like a further step in that direction, with seemingly more funding going to progressive causes.

Among the open questions going forward is whether this new growth is a blip or a trend. Is it a coincidence that all three of these heirs made record contributions to their foundations in 2021? Perhaps the trio made a joint commitment to expand their philanthropies. Or maybe they received scheduled inheritance checks and these contributions are calculated to minimize their taxes. Based on what is known right now, it’s hard to say. But there’s always next year’s tax filings.

Featured