Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on April 8, 2025.
What do Gwyneth Paltrow and Kendall Roy have in common with Larry Page?
The actor’s skiing trial outfits and the “Succession” protagonist’s wardrobe — think Italian luxury brand Loro Piano — made viral the concept of “stealth wealth,” or “quiet luxury,” e.g., clothes that cost a fortune but look unremarkable to the unpracticed eye.
It’s not clear whether the Google cofounder owns any $4,800 wool coats or $495 cashmere baseball caps. But he does, by my estimation, have the Forbes list philanthropic equivalent: a multibillion-dollar foundation that has barely any public profile. And he is not alone.
There seem to be a growing number of massive “stealth philanthropies” — foundations with 10-digit endowments and IRS filings but without websites, LinkedIn pages or virtually any other public presence on the web.
The largest of these foundations give away as much money every year as is spent in America’s most expensive U.S. Senate races. They grant more each year than some of the nation’s biggest corporations spend on lobbying. Yet, except by digging through IRS filings or reviewing the records of largely pay-for-use philanthropic databases, there is no way to see where all that money is going. Most Americans — and even many in the sector — have no idea these grantmaking giants even exist.
In one light, there is something admirable about such a low-key approach. It has the appearance of giving in a purer form, more akin to early-stage Chuck Feeney or Prince, rather than peddling in the quid pro quo of giving in exchange for public adoration.
But maybe we should just see such efforts as the ultimate form of “stealth wealth.” Like a brand name signaled with a subtle stitch, it’s not like these institutions are entirely invisible. These billionaires could, after all, make donations silently through DAFs or LLCs. Instead, they leave the faintest trace. It’s like a $650 flip-flop: If you know, you know.
It’s hard to know donors’ motivations, of course. But some certainly seem to prefer keeping almost everything under wraps. Five of the seven donors listed here are charter members of what I dubbed the Black Box Billionaires, or ultra-wealthy donors whose foundations send the bulk of their yearly grant dollars to donor-advised funds. Due to limited disclosure rules, DAFs are basically opaque, i.e., black boxes.
Below, I’ve listed seven of the very largest examples of this brand of “stealth philanthropy.” Not one of these foundations has a website (which rules out operations like the $9.5 billion Musk Foundation and its 256-character website), nor do any have a LinkedIn page (beyond what is auto-generated). Most list no staff on their 990-PF forms. But all have at least a couple billion dollars, which puts them all among the 80 or so largest private foundations in the nation. In other words, these philanthropies may be stealthy, but they have plenty of financial firepower.
Google cofounder Larry Page’s foundation
The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation is the single biggest example of this phenomenon, with its $6.3 billion endowment putting it among the country’s top 20 private foundations, larger even than the century-old Rockefeller Foundation. Its grantmaking has hovered around $280 million in recent years.
Page was once the foremost example of a black box billionaire. Over more than a decade, the Google cofounder’s foundation sent 99% of its grants to donor-advised funds, which have no payout or individual disclosure requirements. That makes it hard to say what he and his wife, Lucinda Southworth, who is the foundation’s other director, have been funding, if anything. But in 2023, though three-quarters of its payout went to a DAF, the couple’s foundation sent the rest — more than a dozen checks — to working charities. It turns out Page is a climate funder.
Related:
- Larry Page Steps Out of Philanthropy’s Shadows as a Climate Donor
- Larry Page’s Foundation Doubled in Size to Hit $6.7 Billion in Assets — Nearly All Giving Goes to DAFs
Duan Yongping’s H&H Evergreen Foundation
Called the “godfather” of China’s smartphone industry, the Chinese tech billionaire has been the chair of this foundation since its launch. While Yongping is presumably the donor behind H&H Evergreen Foundation, all of its funding has historically come from LLCs that make it difficult to verify that.
As with most of the groups on this list, the $4.2 billion foundation has sent nearly all its grant dollars to donor-advised funds in recent years, so it’s hard to nail down its priorities. Besides its DAF giving, it has regularly sent money to Stanford University, along with smaller awards to the antipoverty nonprofit Glide Foundation, UC San Francisco and the Lucile Packard Children’s Fund.
Related: Another Tech-Fueled, Multibillion-Dollar Foundation. Have You Even Heard of It?
The other Google cofounder: The Sergey Brin Family Foundation
Sergey Brin is the rare stealth megadonor who does not route most of his foundation dollars to a DAF. His $4 billion foundation may have a similarly low profile as the others here, but its IRS filings do actually reveal where it spends its money. The largest share goes to Parkinson’s disease, mostly in the form of mega gifts to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Recent tax disclosures that revealed that the 51-year-old is also a climate donor. Brin has sent major awards to the think tank and regrantor Climate Imperative, the policy group Energy Action Fund and to the fiscal sponsors Sixteen Thirty Fund and the Fund for a Better Future. He has also funded local causes, science, progressive organizations, antipoverty work and academic positions and centers.
Related:
- Sergey Brin Emerges as a Climate Megafunder
- Sergey Brin’s Off-the-Radar Foundation Is Huge — and Growing Fast. Here’s What We Know About It
NVIDIA cofounder’s Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation
The AI boom has made Jensen Huang one of the world’s richest people and the NVIDIA cofounder’s foundation as big as many of America’s oldest and most well-established major grantmakers. Its endowment had already reached $3.4 billion by 2023, and the chipmaker’s shares — which make up the bulk of its assets — have doubled since then.
Much of the foundation’s grants to date have gone straight to DAFs, as with most of the institutions listed here. Otherwise, Jensen Huang and his wife, Lori Huang, have supported a range of universities, including their alma mater Oregon State, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Smaller, one-time awards have gone to groups including Living Through Giving Foundation, Crisis Text Line, Asia Society and Mental Health Innovations.
Related: AI Has Made Nvidia’s Founder a Centibillionaire. What Will That Mean for His Philanthropy?
Late Bay Area developer Gerson Bakar’s foundation
Unlike the other institutions listed here, the Gerson Bakar Foundation has lost its founding donor and namesake, who died in 2017. The Bay Area real estate developer is survived by his wife, Barbara Bakar, who is now president of the $2.5 billion foundation.
In recent years, the San Francisco-based operation has granted $200 million to $300 million a year, as much as century-old institutions like the Kresge Foundation. Those dollars stay local. More than 80% of all grants go to California nonprofits and nearly the same percentage of grant dollars have gone to just two recipients: Bakar’s alma mater, University of California, Berkeley ($119 million in 2023), and the University of California, San Francisco ($98 million). If it widens its lens, this foundation could be a national force.
Art collector and sports owner Steven Rales’ foundation
While his name is not nearly as well known as others on this list, Steven Rales still makes headlines as a part owner of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and NFL’s Washington Commanders. He’s also produced Wes Anderson movies and is a major art collector. But he has not received — or sought — much attention for his $2.1 billion Indian Paintbrush Foundation.
Like others on this list, Rales was once a black box billionaire, with his foundation sending 78% of all payout to DAFs between 2021 and 2022. But in 2023, he changed things up. Every dollar of Indian Paintbrush’s $109 million grant budget that year went to working charities, with about 90% of that sum landing at his alma mater, DePauw University. Other big gifts went to the Grand Teton National Park Foundation ($5 million) and the study-abroad nonprofit College Year in Athens ($5 million).
Related: Steven Rales Pumped $1.5 Billion into His Foundation in 2021. Is Money Reaching Nonprofits?
Former hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller’s foundation
The New York City-based Druckenmiller Foundation is headed by the longtime investor and his wife, Fiona. It’s a low-overhead, family-driven operation. Money goes to the universities that Druckenmillers have attended and a few other priority areas: economic mobility, the environment and health. Don’t expect a website anytime soon. “Every dollar I spend on the website is a dollar I can’t give to Memorial Sloan Kettering, Harlem Children’s Zone. So why would I?” Druckenmiller once told me.
Related:
