Nike founder Phil Knight donates $1bn in shares to charitable foundation
The donation represents about 0.7% of Nike's outstanding shares and 3.1% of Knight's $32bn fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index
New York — Nike’s Phil Knight donated almost $1bn of the apparel maker’s stock to a charitable organisation this week. Eighty-year-old Knight, Nike’s founder and chair emeritus, gave 12-million shares, according to a regulatory filing that didn’t identify the beneficiary beyond noting that he and his wife, Penelope, were directors of the entity. The Knights previously contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the University of Oregon and Stanford University. The latest donation — worth $990m when it was made Wednesday — represents about 0.7% of the company’s outstanding shares and 3.1% of his $32bn fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people. It’s the latest example of mega-philanthropy. In 2017, Bill Gates donated $5bn of Microsoft shares to his foundation, while Warren Buffett gave $3.4bn to charity in July. In September, Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, pledged $2bn towards preschool programmes in low-income comm...
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