{"id":226362,"date":"2025-10-07T10:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T17:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/?p=226362"},"modified":"2025-10-14T10:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T17:27:50","slug":"three-more-foundations-that-got-much-larger-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/home\/three-more-foundations-that-got-much-larger-in-2023","title":{"rendered":"Three More Foundations That Got Much Larger in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“Gradually and then suddenly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an inverse sense, Ernest Hemingway\u2019s quip about how he went bankrupt could be said to describe an array of family foundations and funds helmed by living donors<\/a> whose assets have exploded in value in recent years following years of steady or slower growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FoundationMark founder and President John Seitz recently put together a spreadsheet listing the 40 foundations that received the most incoming contributions for the December 2023 fiscal year end. It contained many of the usual suspects. Topping the list was the Gates Foundation, which received $4 billion in incoming contributions. Other high-profile entrants included the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation ($3.6 billion), the Bloomberg Family Foundation ($1.2 billion) and the Walton Family Foundation ($570 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I found most striking about the list, though, is that at least a third of the entries were place-based, under-the-radar family foundations. While it remains to be seen if their leaders decide to expand the foundation\u2019s public profile or geographic purview, what\u2019s irrefutable is that they should be moving substantially more money out the door compared to 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are quick overviews of three of them. (Also check out IP’s recent coverage of six more philanthropies that got a lot bigger in 2023 here<\/a> and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Scott Family Foundation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

2022 assets:<\/strong> $1.7 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 contributions: <\/strong>$736 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-over-year increase in assets: <\/strong>25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter Scott Jr.<\/a> was born in Omaha in 1931 and spent his professional career with Kiewit Corporation, an Omaha-based engineering and construction company that had $16.8 billion in revenue in 2024, where, among other roles, he served as chairman and CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1987, Scott married Suzanne Marshall Scott, who had been the founding executive director of the Omaha Zoo Foundation. Suzanne passed away in 2013. According to Forbes<\/em><\/a>, Scott, a lifelong friend of Warren Buffett who sat on the Berkshire Hathaway board, owes the bulk of his family\u2019s $4.2 billion fortune to the fact that when he passed in 2021, the family owned 6% of Berkshire Hathaway Energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Walter Scott Family Foundation is one of the Scott family\u2019s six foundations<\/a>. In the fiscal year ending December 2023, it received a $736 million contribution from a family trust. The book value of its total assets was $1.6 billion and it disbursed 58 grants totallng $146 million. At $52 million, the largest grant flowed to the affiliated Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation, which has a public website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next three largest grants went to three Nebraska-based organizations\u2019 capital campaigns \u2014 Downtown Riverfront Trust ($25 million), the Omaha Performing Arts Society Foundation ($15 million) and the University of Nebraska Foundation ($10 million). Roughly 60% percent of grants flowed to Nebraska-based organizations. Other grantmaking priorities included museums, health and social services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haplotace Foundation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

2022 assets: <\/strong>$47 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 contributions: <\/strong>$556 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year-over-year increase in assets: <\/strong>1,272%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oldest Form 990 I was able to pull up on the Birmingham, Alabama-based Haplotace Foundation was from 2001, when it was known as the JJE Charitable Foundation. Its director was J. Bibb, and its treasurer was Henry Barclay III, who, as of 2023, was the foundation\u2019s president and treasurer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation, which does not appear to have a public website, received $556 million in contributions in 2023, most of which came in the form of publicly traded securities from an Atlanta-based entity called Harvest Trust. Its end-of-year fair market value of all assets stood at $645 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, the foundation\u2019s net value of noncharitable-use assets \u2014 that is, the pool of money it can pull from to make qualifying distributions like grants and salaries \u2014 was $119 million. This suggests the $556 million in contributions came into the foundation too late in the year to increase the net value of noncharitable-use assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foundation disbursed four grants to three recipients totaling $1.7 million: The Central Alabama Community Foundation ($908,000), Presbyterian Church in America Foundation (two grants totaling $830,500) and Oregon\u2019s Mission Increase ($5,000). The foundation earmarked $902,805 for compensation to its three full-time officers, each of whom was paid $300,935.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Related Inside Philanthropy Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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