Phil and Penny Knight donated $2 billion to the University of Oregon

“This is the largest donation to a public university,” she emphasized in a press release.

The university emphasized that the new college will educate engineers and scientists in bioengineering and other disciplines, attract faculty and researchers to the growing campus, and accelerate the university's ability to translate results from the laboratory into new products, therapies and technology.

In total, it's already 2 billion

The choice of the university where the money went should not be surprising. The Nike co-founder graduated from the University of Oregon in 1959.

It takes more than just a vivid imagination to make a bold dream a reality. We also need the opportunity that our great American universities - both public and private - have always provided. This is not the time to abandon them. "Penny and I are grateful for the opportunity to invest in the futures of our most promising young people in such an important way," Knight, 88, said.

This is the third donation the couple has made to the university. Previous donations - $500 million each in 2016 and 2021 - enabled the creation and expansion of the Knight Campus into an innovation center.

"Phil and Penny Knight have been believing in things that don't yet exist for years," said University of Oregon President Karl Scholz. They did it in 2016 and they're doing it again now, on a scale that's truly hard to imagine. I am grateful to them and I am glad that I can witness such things, he added.

Support for education and health

The donation to the University of Oregon is not the only example of the Knights' philanthropy. In early September, they announced their donation of $1.1 billion to Providence St Vincent Medical Center and Providence Heart Institute. The goal of this investment is to create the first hospital in Oregon dedicated exclusively to women's health. “Penny and I have always believed that real breakthroughs come from people who are willing to take on the toughest challenges,” Knight emphasized.

Last year, the Knights also pledged $2 billion to Oregon Health & Science University's cancer institute, which is expected to revolutionize cancer treatment and set new standards in the field.