We recently published a list of the most prominent and engaged American billionaires in the climate fight. Left on the cutting room floor were another dozen-plus uber-wealthy peers who have either recently made their first big climate pledges or are otherwise signaling substantially more climate philanthropy to come. You might think of this group as the United States’ next potential wave of huge climate donors.
With U.S. federal spending dwarfed by the scale of the crisis, philanthropy has an important role to play in averting catastrophic warming in the years ahead. If this group gets increasingly serious about climate philanthropy, they could also—for good or ill—help determine what paths we choose to get to a net-zero emissions future. In light of this huge potential influence, I’ve summarized what each member of this group has done to date and what we might expect down the road.
I’ve arranged the list—which includes both individuals and couples—by their estimated assets (not their contributions to climate philanthropy). As in the prior roundup, the people on this list likely have a lot more to give than they did before COVID-19 arrived last March. U.S. billionaire wealth has soared 70% during the pandemic, adding nearly $2.1 trillion to the bank accounts of the richest Americans, according to Forbes data analyzed by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality.
It’s worth noting that the ultra-rich and their defenders sometimes say their ability to give is limited because they cannot liquidate their holdings—doing so would take their companies out of their control, for instance. But as Teddy Schleifer of Puck has pointed out, and investigations have very extensively documented, Americans in their unique stratosphere commonly receive substantial lines of credits from Wall Street banks to fund their lifestyles and passions, whether mega-yachts or spaceships. Elon Musk reportedly had some 40% of his shares in Tesla pledged as collateral for other loans at one point. With rates as low as 1%, those loans could be just as well used for philanthropy, particularly by those who have pledged to give most of their fortunes away. The same goes for giving their assets—without relinquishing control of them—to a foundation earlier rather than later. All of which is to say, such donors represent an enormous pool of wealth that could be put to use toward averting this crisis.
One final note: Between this piece and my prior accounting of billionaire climate funders, there are just 20 individuals, nearly all of whom hold spots on the Forbes 400. That means some 95% of the very richest people in America have not publicly put any serious funding toward the climate crisis. That’s shocking. Those putting their wealth to work deserve examination and critique, but also credit for taking action on this crisis. Yes, top-down mega-philanthropy can result in the undemocratic promotion of billionaire-friendly solutions. But hoarding resources in an emergency seems even worse. On that note, here are the rising climate mega-donors on our radar.
John A. Sobrato & Family
Until very recently, climate and the environment were not listed among the Sobrato Philanthropies’ priorities. But last year, this family of California real estate moguls launched a sustainability fund. And this year, it named climate as a priority—and it has already taken some prominent public steps. Sobrato Philanthropies was, for instance, among the pledgers to a now $328 million philanthropic alliance to curb methane emissions and a $1.7 billion commitment for Indigenous land rights. With few public grants yet, inclusion here is mostly a matter of what’s possible. And the possibilities are substantial, given John A. Sobrato’s roughly $6 billion wealth. This Bay Area family has given tens of millions for STEM education and appears primed to take philanthropic action on scientists’ dire warnings about the future of life on a warming planet.
Arthur M. Blank
The Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner doesn’t have much of a track record on climate funding. But his namesake foundation, after 25 years of giving, recently refocused on three new areas of giving—and one is the environment. Specifically, it plans to fund climate resiliency and conservation, the latter an area more funders are belatedly treating as inextricable from climate change. Tax filings from 2019, the most recent available, show only a few related environmental grants, such as six-figure awards to Outward Bound and Trout Unlimited. However, the institution’s multimillion-dollar commitment to the network of paths, parks and transit known as the Atlanta Beltline stands on its own. We’ll see whether the 79-year-old Giving Pledge signatory—who has an estimated $8 billion fortune—gets deeper into climate philanthropy in the years to come.
Lynda and Stewart Resnick
This California agriculture power couple’s climate philanthropy to date has been tied to a single, albeit massive gift: $750 million to Caltech in 2019 for an energy and sustainability research center. It’s said to be the second-largest commitment on record to an American university. It’s also not without controversy. Known for their brands Fiji Water and Pom Wonderful, the Resnicks have come under fire for their environmental record, particularly for water and plastic use. And they have acknowledged the gift could lead to research that will help the $8 billion couple’s vast farm holdings. Three years later, the question is, will we see any other major climate gifts from the Resnicks?
Learn more: Is a Giant University Donation a Sign of the Times for Climate Giving?
George Soros
The operations of Open Society Foundations—the philanthropy of this hedge fund billionaire—reach across the globe, funding a wide range of issues affecting the world’s downtrodden. Yet it has not always had a climate program that matched its other ambitions. In late 2020, OSF announced a new $40 million climate initiative. And it is undergoing a massive restructuring that will place climate as one of two overarching priorities throughout its work. Soros is rare among the mega-rich in that the 91-year-old’s wealth—now estimated at nearly $9 billion—has actually declined in recent years, largely due to $18 billion in gifts to OSF. If the foundation expands its giving further after its strategic reset, climate philanthropy could stand to benefit.
Learn more: OSF Turns Its Attention to Climate Change, With a New Justice-Focused Initiative
Marc and Lynne Benioff
Between the time I drafted an initial list of names and wrote these descriptions, the Salesforce co-founder and his wife, Lynne, made a new $200 million pledge related to climate change. Half that sum is for grants to support the 1t.org effort to plant a trillion trees by 2030, while the rest is for impact investments in “ecopreneurs” working on cutting emissions or protecting the environment. The San Francisco couple has long worked on a climate-related area: ocean protection. One focus has been the crowdsourced Benioff Ocean Initiative, which has funded projects to prevent whale collisions and remove plastic from rivers. Other funding has gone toward tech-oriented ocean cleanup efforts. Marc still serves as CEO of the cloud computing software giant. But at some point, he may begin to put more time—and more of his roughly $10 billion fortune—into philanthropy. After all, he and Lynne are Giving Pledge signatories. Could this recent gift signal a greater focus on climate?
Lukas and Samantha Walton
Lukas Walton serves as the environmental committee chair for the Walton Family Foundation, a major green funder that only recently explicitly acknowledged the climate crisis in its strategies. That could mark the beginning of more substantial climate-specific grantmaking, but the Walmart heir’s personal philanthropy could become an even bigger presence. The 35-year-old recently became the first third-generation Walton to launch a substantial public presence for his philanthropy.
Lukas and his wife, Samantha, revealed their Builders Initiative fund, which is one branch of a larger family office focused on social impact. It names climate and energy as one priority, with oceans and food and agriculture also on the list. Major funding from the initiative has gone to the Nature Conservancy, an environmental behavior change group called RARE, and CREO Syndicate, which works with the rich on environmental giving. As is common with many members of this list, the family also looks for aligned investments to support their chosen causes. With a foundation endowment that has rapidly grown to $1.2 billion, and an estimated $16 billion fortune to draw from, this operation could soon be a major climate funder.
Learn more: A Walton Heir Goes Public with a Sizeable Philanthropy and Investment Operation
Laurene Powell Jobs and Family
The philanthropist and widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs joined the ranks of climate mega-givers in late September with a pledge to give $3.5 billion over a decade through the family’s Waverley Street Foundation. Grantmaking will focus on housing, transportation, food security and health—and the announcement suggested climate justice is a priority. That’s about all we know so far. The 57-year-old’s past work through her charitable LLC, Emerson Collective, which lacks the disclosure requirements of foundations, doesn’t provide many other hints and it’s hard to know how much money is moving through it. Climate is, however, one of Emerson’s named priorities. And with around $18 billion in assets, Powell Jobs has plenty to give. Hopefully, greater transparency is on the way for both operations.
Learn more: Another Multibillion-Dollar Climate Pledge, and More Questions Than Answers
Sam Bankman-Fried
To date, this cryptocurrency wunderkind has given relatively little to climate philanthropy, considering his estimated $26.5 billion wealth. But as a self-proclaimed effective altruist who’s pledged to give all his wealth away, the potential here is staggering. And did I mention he’s only 29? His cryptocurrency platform FTX, which accounts for a large share of his wealth, recently launched a minor giving arm that constitutes his first public philanthropic act, though to date, it is largely funded by client donations. Its early giving areas—farmed animals, carbon capture and storage, and evaluation of climate organizations—may offer a glimpse at future solo philanthropic interests. He says a personal foundation is on the way.
Learn more: A Young Crypto-Billionaire’s Nascent Approach to Giving: 7 Questions for Sam Bankman-Fried
MacKenzie Scott
Compared solely to her own staggering levels of giving, Scott has not made climate a major priority. Her very first round of grants included $125 million for the cause. But Scott, who has become one of the largest and most disruptive philanthropists in modern history, famously pledged to “empty the safe.” And with around $60 billion left to give, maybe at some point, she’ll make a multibillion-dollar round of grants focused on climate. If such awards follow her past focus on equity and groups long underserved by philanthropy, future giving by the 51-year-old and her husband, Dan Jewett, could be a big step toward balancing past funding trends in the climate movement.
Learn more: MacKenzie Scott’s Early Climate Funding Follows a Well-Worn Path. How Might She Branch Out?
Rob and Melani Walton
The former Walmart director and eldest son of the mega-retailer’s co-founder is not generally known as a climate donor. But the 77-year-old and his wife, Melani, have recently joined a series of high-profile, climate-adjacent conservation efforts. Through the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation, the couple has committed $100 million for African park conservation, $25 million to a push to conserve 5% of the world’s oceans, and undisclosed amounts to a $5 billion conservation effort and an initiative to preserve landscapes key to biodiversity. They also gave a big grant to a sustainability center at Arizona State and Conservation International in the past few years. All in all, it seems conservation, not climate, is their passion. Yet those fields are increasingly converging. With Rob roughly six years into his post-Walmart life and sitting on an estimated $63 billion in assets, perhaps this rash of commitments signals more will flow toward these causes.
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan
If this article had come out a few months ago, the Facebook co-founder and his wife would not have made the list. But in October, the couple’s philanthropic LLC, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, announced its first known grants for climate change: $10 million for a decarbonization fellowship program run by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy and $23 million for organizations working on carbon dioxide removal. Most of that sum was grants, but CZI also made its first public climate investment. Climate is still not listed among the LLC’s wide-ranging initiatives. Perhaps that will change. Facebook recently rebranded as Meta, a million-meme-launching nod to the metaverse, or the online world Zuckerberg hopes his company can dominate. One hopes the two, who are in their late 30s and have an estimated $118 billion fortune, will give more toward making sure this world survives in the meantime.
Learn more: A New Billionaire Climate Funder: Where Chan Zuckerberg’s First Green Grants Are Headed and Why
Elon Musk
The South African-born serial entrepreneur’s major contribution to the clean energy transformation can be conveyed in a single word: Tesla. But the electric vehicle CEO’s philanthropic commitment to tackling climate change is largely limited to a single public gift: $100 million for a carbon capture contest. Could more be on the way for the world’s richest man? After all, the 50-year-old recently, if briefly, became the first person whose wealth tops $300 billion. Given he’s also busy trying to make it possible to flee Earth by spaceship, and he’s keen on trolling philanthropy and politicians alike with bad, off-color jokes, we’re not going to get our hopes up.
Learn more: Elon Musk’s First Foray Into Mega-Philanthropy? A Carbon Removal Competition
Did I miss your favorite American mega-billionaire with a growing commitment to climate philanthropy? Let me know at michaelk@insidephilanthropy.com.