After years of court hearings and a king’s ransom in legal fees, news broke this week that the famously fractious Murdoch family had settled its real-life succession drama.
A $3.3 billion deal has been struck to transfer control of Rupert Murdoch’s conservative media empire to his son, Lachlan, while siblings Prue, Liz and James pocket the payout and forfeit all claims to their father’s companies.
What might this mean for philanthropy? For Rupert Murdoch, probably not much. The family’s patriarch, now 94, has earned Forbes’ lowest possible philanthropy score for a giving record we once called Scrooge-like.
Lachlan, his chosen heir, has a somewhat more robust record, including million-dollar awards for children’s health and Sydney’s first queer museum, and he sits on the board of the Paley Center for the Media and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Yet the terms of the deal suggest he is, insofar as this can ever apply to a billionaire, currently somewhat cash poor — and unlikely to make any big donations. The same applies to Lachlan’s younger siblings, Grace and Chloe, who are part of the controlling trust, but are still in their early 20s.
Yet there is one episode from the Murdochs’ past that suggests this payout could trigger major philanthropic gifts, at least by the three siblings, who will each collect $1.1 billion.
In 2019, Disney completed its purchase of 21st Century Fox — and gave James Murdoch a hefty payday. Appointed as the latter’s CEO by his father, a role he held for six years, James received a reported $2.1 billion from the sale. That same year, as I later reported, he dropped $100 million in Disney shares into his foundation, Quadrivium, which went on a major grantmaking spree in the following years.
But James may not have been the only Murdoch sibling who benefitted from the sale of Fox. It may be a coincidence, but that same year, 2019, his younger sister, Liz, gave $97 million to her own foundation, Freelands Foundation. And the following year, Prue, their elder half-sister, put about £103 million into her charity, the Prudence Trust.
Again, these transfers may be a mere quirk of timing. Yet the Prudence Trust’s records show no other contributions of nearly that size in the following years — while Freelands and Quadrivium have reported no subsequent donations at all.
It’s hard to say anything for certain at this point, and history suggests philanthropy will benefit from, at most, a fraction of the proceeds from this new Murdoch mega-deal, let alone of the family’s estimated $24 billion fortune. But assuming slices of the payout do end up with these three siblings’ philanthropies, what might that money end up backing?
James and Kathryn Murdoch: Backers of climate, democracy and journalism
As of its latest IRS filing, James and Kathryn Murdoch’s foundation, Quadrivium, was nearly out of money. Since the couple transferred $100 million to the foundation in 2019, Quadrivium has granted around $25 million each year. But that phase may now be over; it closed 2023 with less than $13 million in the bank.
That amount would not have covered the prior year’s grantmaking, which included awards to the Environmental Defense Fund ($7.5 million), Potential Energy Coalition ($3 million), American Association for the Advancement of Science ($2 million), the Associated Press ($2 million) and Unite America ($1.75 million).
To continue grantmaking at that volume, the couple would have to top up Quadrivium’s endowment, and there’s one recent award that suggests they might have done so: This April, the American Journalism Project announced a $5 million award from Quadrivium.
Another glimpse of the couple’s priorities — and possibly ongoing giving — can be seen in their board memberships. Kathryn serves as a board member for several science and environmental groups, including SciLine, Climate Leadership Council and EDF, as well as Unite America.
James, who we named one of the most powerful heirs in philanthropy in 2022, gravitates more toward arts boards, including serving as a trustee of the Ghetto Film School, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and of Dia, also known as Dia Center for the Arts, a New York City-based contemporary arts nonprofit. The 52-year-old is also on the board of Center for a New American Security.
Related: Here’s What We Know About James and Kathryn Murdoch’s Giving for Climate, Democracy and More
Elisabeth “Liz” Murdoch: A patron of the arts
Named for her grandmother, Dame Elisabeth Joy Murdoch, who was a well-known Australian philanthropist, Liz Murdoch is better known for her work in media than her philanthropy. But she does have a foundation, registered in both London and Reno, Nevada, called the Freelands Foundation, and an evident passion for art. Her third husband, Keith Tyson, is an award-winning painter.
First established in 2015 in England, Freelands is focused on arts education. “Teaching remains unwaveringly at the heart of everything we do,” wrote Liz in an opening letter to the foundation’s most recent annual report. Later in the text, she expressed implicit support for DEI-related policies — and outright dismay at the small number of “artists of colour” in English school exams.
“This is in stark contrast to what students and teachers are asking for, and is disconnected from the ideas and practices in the visual arts sector, where the rich and varied work of Black and Brown artists are increasingly being celebrated,” she wrote.
The foundation has recently granted around $6 million annually, with most major awards going to arts institutions in the U.K., including the Turner Contemporary ($431,032), Arts Council of England ($411,728), The Public Catalogue ($374,110) and Iniva ($284,677).
As I noted above, Liz, who is 57, put $97 million into the foundation in 2019 — the year her brother, James, transferred a similar amount into his foundation — but has not put another dollar into the philanthropy, according to its latest IRS filings. It ended 2023 with a $67 million endowment. Liz also has an Australian philanthropy, the Elisabeth and Keith Murdoch Trust, which recently reported assets of AU$56 million.
Liz, who is Rupert Murdoch’s second child, also puts her time into arts organizations. Since 2016, she has been a board member of American Friends of the Donmar, a theater and arts space in London. She previously served as a member of Arts Council England, a Tate trustee (2008 and 2016) and chair of the Tate Modern Advisory Council (2009 and 2016).
Prudence “Prue” Murdoch MacLeod
Rupert’s oldest child, and his only child with first wife Patricia Booker, Prue Murdoch MacLeod appears to have as many philanthropic vehicles as her other two siblings combined. In addition to the Prudence Trust, she is also credited with starting the Lasdowne Foundation and Macdoch Foundation.
The Prudence Trust, which is registered in the U.K. and has four listed employees, granted about £7 million in both 2022 and 2023, largely for mental health services and research. Unlike her siblings, Prue — who uses the last name of her husband, Alasdair MacLeod — has made regular contributions to this trust. She donated £45 million in 2021, £11 million in 2022 and £12 million in 2023. It ended that year with more than £200 million in assets.
The Lansdowne Foundation is the smallest of Prue’s philanthropies, with no listed employees. Registered in 2013 in Australia, the Sydney-based grantmaker focuses on science, the environment and arts and culture. It granted AU$540,000 in 2024 from an endowment of just over 11 million.
The Macdoch Foundation — which combines parts of her and her husband’s family names — seems to be the only of Prue’s philanthropies with its own website. Tagline: “We seek to build the resilience of people and planet.” The foundation, which ended 2024 with an endowment totalling AU$142 million, makes awards both within Australia and beyond its borders, with grantmaking recently totalling AU$2.8 million.
Grace and Chloe Murdoch
At 23 and 22, respectively, Rupert’s two daughters with Wendi Deng have not yet had much time to dedicate to philanthropy. Grace reportedly graduated this year from Yale, while Chloe is still studying computer science at Stanford University. The pair are now part of the new controlling trust with Lachlan, but time will tell what that means for their financial futures, let alone their philanthropy.
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