Charles Koch is making big moves to ensure that his charities and causes are funded long after he’s gone. In an exclusive interview, the 87-year-old chairman and co-CEO of Koch Industries (and the 16th richest person in America, worth $54.5 billion) tells Forbes that over the last four years he has quietly transferred $5.3 billion of his $125 billion (2022 sales) conglomerate’s nonvoting stock to a pair of nonprofits with fewer restrictions on lobbying and politics than traditional charities. Forbes estimates those shares account for nearly a tenth of the 42% stake previously held by Koch (though he still has 42% voting power).
One of America’s top 25 philanthropists, the staunch libertarian has donated an estimated $1.8 billion to charity over his lifetime (excluding amounts that have not yet been distributed by affiliated nonprofits), with a focus on education, poverty alleviation and reforming the criminal justice and immigration systems. Most of that has flowed through his Stand Together nonprofit network (formerly known as the Koch Network), which also includes the nearly two-decade-old Americans For Prosperity– a “grassroots” organization that has spent tens of millions a year on policy and politics.
“I want everything I have beyond taking care of my family to go to these kinds of efforts,” Koch says. “Stand Together is the best organization I’ve seen to do this. They’re innovative, principled and effective in helping people change their lives and in achieving policy changes–more at the state level than the federal level, because that’s a very difficult place to get anything improved.”