Steve and Connie Ballmer have given away more than $8 billion during the past two decades, and founded the Ballmer Group in 2015. Now they’re changing who gets to decide where the next donations go.
The couple’s economic-mobility philanthropy, Ballmer Group, is spinning its three regional offices into separate, independent nonprofits for their regional grantmaking. The organizations, including MoveUp Southeast Michigan, MoveUp LA, and MoveUp Washington, will operate on their own but stay funded by the Ballmers. Steve was the CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014 and has an estimated net worth of $177 billion, making him the ninth-richest man in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Some of the Ballmer Group’s largest gifts include a $425 million gift to the University of Oregon to establish the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, a $237.5 million gift to Blue Meridian Partners for its Place Matters Initiative, and an up-to $165 million pledge to Communities In Schools to scale its student-support model to 1,000 new schools.
Each of the Ballmer Group’s new regional philanthropies has significance to the couple. Steve grew up in Southeast Michigan; the couple owns the Clippers in Los Angeles County; and Washington is home. So their logic behind splitting their philanthropy into three is to put decision-making about donations closer to the people doing the work.
