Nike co-founder Phil Knight was the top charitable donor of 2025, according to new research from The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
In its annual list of the biggest charitable donations from individuals or their foundations, The Chronicle found that Knight and his wife Penny topped the list with their $2 billion donation to Oregon Health & Science University in August.
The generous gift is set to be used to expand clinical trials and basic cancer research at the Knight Cancer Institute and bolster a range of support services for cancer patients and their families, including psychological, genetic, and financial counseling, nutritional care, and survivorship support, among other offerings.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to invest in the next stage of the Druker-led revolutionary vision of cancer research, diagnosis, treatment, care, and some day, eradication,” the institute said in a statement in August. “We couldn’t be more excited about the transformational potential of this work for humanity. We are confident that establishing the Knight Cancer Institute as a self-governed entity within OHSU will help the Knight and OHSU reach these goals.”
The Knights have made prior donations to the Center — a $100 million gift in 2008 followed by one for $500 million in 2013. They have given Oregon Health & Science a total of at least $2.7 billion over the years.
As for the list’s number two spot, billionaire Warren Buffett takes it with a gift of 1.5 million shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock valued at $746.7 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, who died in 2004.
Rounding out the top three are the late Jackie Bezos and her husband, Mike, the mother and stepfather of billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The couple pledged $500 million to UNICEF USA to back its Child Nutrition Fund and to match gifts from other donors for the effort. They announced the pledge several months before Jackie Bezos died in August at age 78.
The Chronicle noted that its annual rankings are based on the biggest publicly announced gifts. The tally does not include contributions of artwork or gifts from anonymous donors.
