Topline
Hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons made one of the largest gifts in the history of higher education Thursday, gifting $500 million to Stony Brook, the Long Island institution where he once taught math.
Marilyn Simons and Jim Simons gave one of the largest gifts in the history of public education ... [+]
Key Facts
The Simons Foundation, a philanthropic organization run by Simons and his wife, Marilyn, gave $500 million to Stony Brook, a foundation spokesperson confirmed to Forbes, matching earlier reports from Newsday and the New York Times.
That’s the seventh-largest donation directly to an American university ever and the second-largest gift ever received by a public college, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Simons’ gift is trumped only by an anonymous $550 million donation to Western Michigan University in 2021 among public schools, while fellow billionaires Michael Bloomberg and John Doerr’s respective $1.8 billion and $1.1 billion gifts to Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University are the biggest ever.
Jim Simons chaired the math department at Stony Brook before making billions thanks to the Renaissance Technologies quantitative hedge fund he founded, while Marilyn Simons is an alumna of the college.
Located about 60 miles east of Manhattan, Stony Brook was the 86th-ranked school in the country on Forbes’ 2022 Top Colleges list.
The donation announced Thursday will go directly to Stony Brook’s endowment fund, supporting functions such as financial aid and professor salaries.
Forbes Valuation
Jim Simons is worth $28.1 billion, according to our estimates, making him the 48th-richest person in the world. Forbes named Jim and Marilyn Simons as among the top 25 American philanthropists earlier this year thanks to their $5.2 billion in lifetime donations and $1.9 billion in 2022 gifts.
Tangent
Though far smaller in scope, billionaire Robert Hale made a buzzy donation to University of Massachusetts, Boston last week, dishing out $1,000 to each member of the graduating class during his commencement address, a $2.5 million gift in total.
Further Reading
America’s Most Generous Givers 2023: The Nation's 25 Top Philanthropists (Forbes)
Big-Donor Giving to Universities Totaled Nearly $4 Billion Last Year (Barron’s)
Billionaire Robert Hale Gave Grads $1,000 Cash In Envelopes At Ceremony (Forbes)
