Not every major shift in philanthropy begins with an announced plan or a famous name. Sometimes, all it takes is for a family fortune to move into a new grantmaking institution for the funding landscape to change quietly. That is why it is important to track institutions that suddenly appear with assets exceeding half a billion dollars: they reveal not only new donors, but also early trends in the field of social impact.

A new wave is quietly taking shape: grantmaking institutions born of family fortunes, bequests, or major financial transfers that suddenly find themselves among the ranks of major donors. In this context, Inside Philanthropy spotlighted three new institutions, each with assets exceeding half a billion dollars, making them worth watching in the years ahead.

Although these institutions have limited public visibility so far, their assets give them greater funding capacity than many private foundations in the United States. This is not simply about large numbers; it is about these entities’ ability to influence grantmaking priorities and direct resources toward areas that are becoming more prominent in American philanthropy.

The rise of these institutions is connected to a broader trend sometimes known as the Great Wealth Transfer, as vast fortunes pass from one generation to the next, particularly as the Baby Boomer generation ages. As a result, new names appear in tax and grantmaking records each year. Some begin their work quietly, while others quickly become influential players in philanthropy.

Elisabeth C. Deluca Foundation: Restaurant Wealth in Service of Health Education

The first institution is the Elisabeth C. Deluca Foundation, established by the widow of Fred DeLuca, one of the founders of the Subway restaurant chain. The foundation’s significance stems from the family’s substantial financial resources, as well as DeLuca’s connection to several philanthropic institutions established with wealth from the global chain.

Established in 2020, the foundation’s assets grew to approximately $644 million following a major financial transfer in 2024. Although it is based in Florida, a significant portion of its grants went to Connecticut, while others reached states including Indiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Its grantmaking patterns suggest that the foundation tends to support health education, particularly nursing.

In this regard, the University of Connecticut received major grants to support scholarships, research, and its School of Nursing. The foundation also awarded grants to organizations that train healthcare professionals and develop career pathways in the health sector.

This is especially significant because nursing, despite its essential role in healthcare systems, does not always receive funding commensurate with its impact. The foundation may therefore offer an example of a new donor choosing a practical, vital field rather than turning to areas with greater visibility or media attention.

In the Saudi context, this brings to mind Sulaiman Al Rajhi University as a non-profit development project associated with the endowments of Sulaiman Al Rajhi.

The point here is not a similarity in figures or legal structure, but a deeper idea: philanthropic funding can do more than provide temporary support; it can help build healthcare and educational expertise for the long term. Nursing, medicine, and applied sciences are not merely service fields; they are human infrastructure for any sustainable health system.

Puffin Bay Foundation: A New Grantmaker from the World of Internet Archiving

The second institution is the Puffin Bay Foundation, led by Brewster Kahle, known for founding the Internet Archive, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to preserving and archiving the internet. Kahle was also one of the founders of Alexa Internet, which was later sold to Amazon.

What stands out about this foundation is how quickly it has grown. At the beginning of 2024, it was not yet operational in any meaningful sense, but by the end of that year its assets had reached approximately $679 million. It did not wait long to begin making grants: in its first year, it awarded nearly $90 million—a high payout rate compared with many institutions that prefer to take their time after receiving substantial assets.

The concern, however, is transparency. The entire amount the foundation disbursed in its first year went to a donor-advised fund at Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust. This type of fund makes it harder to track the ultimate recipients, because outgoing grants are not always reported in enough detail to link each donor with the final destination of the support.

Here lies the paradox: the foundation’s founder is associated with a project that gives the public greater ability to trace the history of the internet, while his new foundation has so far been less forthcoming about where its grants go. The coming years will show whether it adopts a higher level of transparency in keeping with its founder’s background.

In the Saudi context, this idea can be illustrated by the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah)—not as a private grantmaking institution, but as an institutional model for preserving national memory, collecting documents and sources, and making them accessible.

The shared idea is that impact does not always mean building a school or funding an association. Sometimes it means preserving memory, organizing knowledge, and making it accessible, searchable, and useful.

George and Beverly Rawlings Endowment Foundation: Insurance Wealth Becomes a Family Endowment

The third institution is the George and Beverly Rawlings Endowment Foundation. It was legally established in 2019, but did not hold significant assets before 2024.

That year, the foundation received approximately $530 million from a fund associated with its founder, George Robert Rawlings, who had died the previous year.

Rawlings’ wealth is linked to The Rawlings Company, which specializes in reducing medical claims costs for insurance providers. The article notes that the company’s sale in 2024 was likely one factor behind the foundation’s dramatic increase in assets.

Despite its newly acquired assets, the foundation made only a small number of grants that year. One went to an animal sanctuary that provides care and shelter for farm animals that have not received proper care, which may indicate that the foundation could focus on animal welfare in the future.

Most of the disbursements went to The Rawlings Foundation, an established Christian family foundation founded by George Rawlings’ father. This raises two possibilities: the new foundation may serve as a channel for transferring funds to an existing family foundation, or its board may have chosen to support a familiar organization in its first year before broadening its grantmaking later.

This pattern is familiar in Saudi Arabia through family endowments, one example being the charitable endowments of Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi.

The comparison is not limited to the religious or social field; it concerns the underlying structure of the idea: a businessperson builds wealth, which is then transformed into a charitable entity that continues after their death and requires governance, clear spending priorities, and mechanisms to prevent its impact from remaining confined to a narrow circle.

Why Does This Matter to the Nonprofit Sector?

These three examples show that new philanthropic wealth does not always take the form of institutions with a strong public profile or strategies announced from the outset. Sometimes a major donor starts quietly, its funding vision may lag behind the scale of its assets, or its money may flow through financial vehicles that do not give the public a complete picture of the ultimate recipients.

The article also shows that new grantmaking institutions are not all alike. One clearly focuses on health education and nursing; another has substantial grantmaking capacity but remains opaque about where its funding goes because it uses a donor-advised fund; and a third may become a funding arm for an existing family foundation or later open up broader avenues for grantmaking.

For the nonprofit sector, keeping track of institutions like these is no mere intellectual exercise. Understanding where wealth comes from, how grantmaking institutions take shape, how transparent they are, and what they prioritize at the outset helps organizations read funding trends before they become established patterns.

Ultimately, the importance of these institutions lies not only in their assets exceeding half a billion dollars, but in a deeper question: How will these new fortunes translate into social impact? Will they become clear, direct grants, or remain within financial structures whose impact is difficult to trace?

Source: An adapted editorial translation of an article published in Inside Philanthropy titled: Meet 3 New $500-Million-Plus Grantmakers by Michael Kavate, published on March 12, 2026.

This version is non-exclusive and was prepared for the Third Pillar audience while respecting the original source’s intellectual property rights.