Griffin makes new $130 million gift

Philanthropist Kenneth Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, has donated $130 million to 40 Chicago organizations as he prepares to move his family and business to Miami.

The broad array of gifts—all made during the Summer of 2022—caps two decades and more than $600 million of giving by Griffin, a Florida native, who is estimated to be worth $29 billion. The latest recipients, major institutions representing “the fabric of Chicago,” include the University of Chicago ($30 million), Northwestern Medicine ($25 million), the Field Museum ($20 million), the Museum of Science & Industry ($10 million), the Fourth Presbyterian Church ($10 million), the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago ($5 million), the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab ($5 million), the Museum of Contemporary Art ($5 million), the Art Institute of Chicago ($5 million), Project HOOD Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center ($5 million), and the Chicago Public Education Fund ($4.3 million). Griffin also made a gift to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra of an unreported amount.

The Museum of Science & Industry plans to rename the institution in Griffin’s honor in 2024, while a hall at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago’s economics department already bear his name. The gift to the Fourth Presbyterian Church—where his children were baptized—will help endow meal distribution and other programs at the Gratz Center, built with support from Griffin and named after his maternal grandparents.

In South Florida, Griffin already has donated an estimated $55 million, including a $5 million seed investment in the Miami Disaster Resilience Fund, funding for a program to expand broadband access in underserved communities, and support for an addition to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach.