Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on July 27, 2026.
If you know, you know. That’s the reality for stealth wealth luxury brands like Loro Piana and Brunello Cucinelli — and for what I’ve called stealth philanthropies, or foundations with billions of dollars but no website or other digital presence.
A bit like a $3,400 baby cashmere hoodie, a stealth foundation is visible to insiders, but can easily be missed by untrained observers. In this New Gilded Age, such operations seem to be growing ever more popular, as more and more billionaire donors choose to share details of their foundations only through public IRS filings — and the occasional splashy naming ceremony.
Granted, a desire for privacy has a long history in philanthropy. But these operations occupy a curious middle ground given that megadonor transparency is now functionally optional. Any billion-dollar donor could easily choose to give through a vehicle — such as a donor-advised fund or an LLC — that allows for complete anonymity. This group, however, has opted for the traditional route, albeit without the traditional major foundation’s level of public visibility. They put the ‘private,’ you might say, in private foundations.
Building on two prior pieces about such foundations, I’ve listed five more examples of this phenomenon below, spanning the operations of the cofounder of Nike and the creator of “Star Wars” to one of America’s top hedge fund donors and an oil heiress. At a time when billionaire influence seems omnipresent in American life, stretching from Trump’s cabinet and political fundraising to sports teams and movie studios, the nonprofit world would do well to keep an eye out on these low-key, billion-dollar foundations, too.
Nike royalty Phil and Penny Knight’s foundation
Phil and Penny Knight are not averse to publicity. The Nike cofounder and his wife have publicly announced mega gifts such as a $2 billion pledge to the Oregon Health & Science University and $400 million for Portland’s historically Black Albina neighborhood. But the couple have taken no efforts to publicize their $5 billion Knight Foundation, which has no website or other online presence (and is not to be confused with that other Knight Foundation).
As IP recently wrote, the Knights are both some of the nation’s top living donors and some of the most predictable. Most of their foundation’s money — grantmaking was in the ballpark of $226 million in 2024 — goes to Oregon organizations and to Phil Knight’s two alma maters, the University of Oregon and Stanford University. But with the couple now in their 80s, perhaps their son, Travis Knight, will start to take a greater role in directing this mega grantmaker’s awards.
Related: Five Things to Know About Phil and Penny Knight’s Mega-Giving
Stephens Greth Foundation: the billion-dollar funder out of Endeavor Oil
Like many a new major grantmaker, the Stephens Greth Foundation was born following a death. Autry Stephens, the billionaire founder of the Endeavor Energy Resources oil company, sold the business in early 2024. The 86-year-old passed away a few months later, and by the end of the year, the ink was dry on the foundation’s founding papers and its accounts held a cool $2 billion. Two years have now passed, but the operation still has no website.
The foundation did not make a single grant in its founding year, but it recently made one big promise: $100 million toward a new $5 billion pediatric campus in Dallas. The pledge earned the family naming rights: The campus housing the new children’s hospital will include a Stephens Greth Tower.
The Midland, Texas-based operation is named not only for the late Stephens, but also for his daughter, Lyndal Stephens Greth, who chaired Endeavor prior to the sale and now heads the foundation. If the family chooses, they could easily make the new foundation into one of the very biggest in the nation. Forbes estimates Stephens Greth and her family have a roughly $33 billion fortune.
Related: Nine Foundations with Billions More in the Bank: Tax Filings Reveal Big 2024 Increases
Hedge funder John Paulson’s foundation
John Paulson made his name, and reportedly almost $4 billion, in 2007 by betting right on the housing crisis. He set up his Paulson Family Foundation the following year, and proceeded to build it up with annual donations in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A $1.2 billion contribution in 2017 put the low-profile operation into the ranks of the country’s largest foundations.
The West Palm Beach, Florida-based grantmaker is one of a new crop of major foundations in Florida, though unlike some other newcomers in the state, it is not a product of the Great Wealth Transfer: Paulson, 70, is still very much alive. The foundation is most known for education funding, including a $400 million pledge to Harvard University in 2016 that drew criticism from some for supplementing the school’s already heaping reserve, as well as gifts for K-12 institutions, STEM facilities and Jewish universities.
Avenir Foundation: an early Buffett investor’s giving vehicle
The Avenir Foundation’s path to mega-grantmaker status started with a highly lucrative camping trip. In 1956, university President Homer Dodge drove halfway across the country to invest $120,000 with a young Warren Buffett. More than 60 years later, the death of Dodge’s daughter, Alice Dodge Wallace, in 2020, lofted the foundation into the philanthropic 1%. Launched in 1993, Avenir received 2,000 shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock from Dodge’s estate, bringing its endowment from just around $1 million to $1.2 billion, as of late 2024. As with Stephens Greth, two years have passed, but this operation still has not set up any digital shingle.
Up until that point, the Lakewood, Colorado-based foundation had focused its modest funding on the state’s fine arts institutions, including an opera house, professional chorus, art museums and a symphony. According to its most recent IRS filing, the foundation issued just two grants totalling $2.7 million in 2024. Soon, it will need to move about $50 million a year. The arts will most likely benefit, but there are other causes on Avenir’s radar. One of its only significant recent awards outside the arts sector was a $200,000 grant to Planned Parenthood.
Learn more: Avenir Foundation Is the Latest Example of the Buffett Effect
Star Wars creator George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s foundation
George Lucas has spent his recent years creating a museum with his name on it, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, at a cost of more than $1 billion. His San Rafael, California-based foundation also bears his name and holds a similar amount in assets, but is a much quieter operation. Thanks to a mega transfer in the year that Lucas sold Lucasfilm — and the “Star Wars” franchise with it — to the Walt Disney Company for just over $4 billion, the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation has more than $1.2 billion in assets, but lists no staff, let alone boasting a spaceship-esque building in central Los Angeles. (Lucas and Hobson also head the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which has a website, though its giving is much smaller.)
The Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, like the museum, is focused on arts, culture, film and education. Some of its biggest awards in the past couple of years went to Princeton University, which is Hobson’s alma mater, and New York University. The NAACP and ACLU also got big checks, along with arts organizations like the Apollo Theater, Telluride Film Festival and the LA Film Foundation.
Michael Kavate covers climate philanthropy and billionaire donors. He welcomes all feedback and tips.
