Whether due to death, charity, businesses sold or tax avoidance, every year sees big money bestowed to previously little-known foundations — sometimes rocketing those institutions all the way into the philanthropic 1%.
Yet the vagaries of estate law and the complexity of transactions at the multimillion-dollar end of the market can mean these transformations often take years to play out, with money coming in through a series of mega-payments.
Below are a trio of foundations that have taken such a multistep, if nonetheless swift, climb into the philanthropic elite in recent years, even if all three have not quite reached (so far) tippy top 10-digit territory, i.e., billion-dollar endowment status.
The donors behind them are a diverse bunch. One is an heir to a major Texas ranching family, another a founder of a Nebraska-based national sporting goods retailer and the third a cofounder of a New York quantitative trading firm.
As America’s Great Wealth Transfer gathers speed, these three serve as yet another reminder that major new philanthropies will likely be sprouting up all over the country in the years to come.
Here’s what we know about these newly large grantmakers:
Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation: Daughter’s memorial fund goes mega-sized
After Janey Briscoe Marmion passed away in 2018 at 68, her estate began to make a series of transfers that have grown this foundation well into the nine-figure range. The San Antonio, Texas-based grantmaker was founded in 2008, the year that Janey Briscoe Marmion’s only daughter, Janey Katherine “Kate” Marmion, for whom the philanthropy is named, died. She was 20. The incoming money has made the foundation, which until recently had just a couple million dollars in assets, into a serious player in Texas philanthropy, with a $637 million endowment as of its most recent IRS filing.
Janey Briscoe Marmion was the daughter of Dolph Briscoe, a former governor of Texas and a major landowner and rancher, who was known for his philanthropy. The family’s philanthropy has largely focused on the Lone Star State, and the Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation is no exception.
All 35 grants made by the foundation between 2020 and 2023 went to Texas nonprofits, and half went to organizations in the family hometown of Uvalde. Recipients included the City of Pearsall ($200,000), the Boys and Girls Club of Laredo ($350,000), the Uvalde Memorial Hospital Auxiliary ($500,000) and the National Western Art Foundation ($1 million).
Eagle Foundation: A sporting goods founder backs Catholic organizations
James W. Cabela helped his brother launch the sporting goods retailer Cabela’s and reportedly owned 16% of the company in 2017 when Bass Pro Shops bought it for $5 billion. But while his late brother, Richard, was more well known, and once was president of the Cabela Family Foundation, James has largely stayed out of the spotlight. So has his philanthropy, the Eagle Foundation.
Founded in 1994, the Omaha, Nebraska-based grantmaker’s assets hovered around $80 million for many years, but major infusions in 2019 ($136 million), 2022 ($184 million) and 2023 ($152 million) have transformed it from mid-sized philanthropy to major player. Its grantmaking has kept pace, rising to $37 million in 2023, when its endowment hit $599 million. The Cabela Family Foundation, by contrast, had just $15 million in assets that year.
Many of the Eagle Foundation’s grants have a Catholic orientation, but not all. Recent significant awardees include Creighton University ($6.5 million over two awards), Catholic Relief Services ($5.8 million over two awards), Partners in Health ($5.25 million over two awards), World Vision and Water for People ($2.2 million) and Mercy Corps ($3 million over two awards). Many of its biggest awardees are national organizations, but nearly a third of its grants went to its home state of Nebraska in recent years.
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Essex Avenue Foundation: Quantitative trader’s grantmaker growing fast
This Wilmington, Delaware-based funder only started filing reports with the IRS in July 2020, but there’s at least one good reason to watch it closely: Every year, it has reported contributions of at least $100 million. Those contributions are adding up fast, with assets totaling $698 million as of 2023.
Grantmaking has not climbed so rapidly. The foundation granted just under $24 million in 2023. Assuming its endowment remains stable, it will need to increase its spending by more than $10 million next year to meet the 5% minimum requirement. Most of its recent big grants went to New York nonprofits, including Escuela Comunitaria Del Bronx ($2.9 million), Breaking Ground Housing Development Fund ($2 million), Council on the Environment ($1.3 million) and $1 million each to the New York Foundling, Oyate Group and City and Country School.
The foundation is managed by Foundation Source, but its main donor is Michael Jenkins, one of the cofounders of the trading firm Jane Street Capital. (His contributions to the foundation, incidentally, have mostly come in the form of contractual interest in a Delaware limited partnership that owns one branch of the firm.) He is one of five directors of the foundation, all of whom bear the name Jenkins. The others? Ann, Greta, Leo and Sophia.
Michael Kavate covers climate philanthropy and billionaire donors. He welcomes all feedback, tips and requests.
