Nike Cofounder Phil Knight and His Wife Pledge $400 Million to Help Portland’s Black Community
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Nike Inc. cofounder and chairman emeritus Phil Knight and his wife Penny are upping their commitment to Portland Oregon’s Black community with a $400 million pledge to the Rebuild Albina project.
The initiative is part of the new 1803 Fund, a private investing and philanthropy fund that is geared toward helping Black residents thrive and for communities to flourish. As the first venture by the 1803 Fund, the Rebuild Albina project is designed to help advance Black Portland residents — and future generations — through investments in education, place and culture and belonging in the Albina community, with benefits that are hoped to ripple across Portland.
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In a statement, Knight said he and his wife “have long believed in the community of Portland.”
He also highlighted how some of his most important memories are connected to the Eastside of Portland, including in Lower Albina neighborhood. One example was how Jefferson High School, under the leadership of coaches Bill Sorsby and Doug Basham, was the center of the “all comers” track meets of Knight’s youth. The former Nike leader also noted that the handshake deal he made with Bill Bowerman to launch Nike happened in Lower Albina near Memorial Coliseum. In addition, Knight said that Lower Albina was the focus of “the initial agreement struck with Ron Herndon and Tony Hopson to build a Nike retail store with a share of the profits invested back into the community.”
The 1803 Fund’s chief executive officer Rukaiyah Adams noted the “place-based effort of this magnitude” had never been done in Portland or in the U.S. In his post, Adams leads the 1803 Fund, which is being overseen by a board of directors comprised of representatives from the city’s businesses, nonprofits and Albina communities. Two familiar faces to Knight, who are serving on that board, are Nike CEO John Donahoe and Nike’s Michael Jordan Brand chairman Larry Miller.
Based on 2020 U.S. Census data for Portland, the average Black household brings in about $3,000 in monthly income, while Latino households earn $4,500, and Native American households earn nearly $5,000. In comparison, white Portland households earn $6,400 on average each month. Affordable housing has become unattainable for many city residents, as is the case in several other major U.S. cities.
In 2022, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Portland was $1,904 and the median price for a home was $525,000. According to the city’s data, two-bedroom apartments across the city were considered unaffordable for the average Black household.
A supporter of Portland’s Black community, Knight has funded Head Start programs locally and nationally for some time, as well as Self-Enhancement Inc., an organization that offers guidance to underserved youth to help them reach their potential. He has also known and worked with 1803 Fund board members Tony Hopson and Ron Herndon for decades. Knight helped conceptualize the innovative Albina Nike Community Store so that profits were shared with the Albina community. The Rebuild Albina project is meant to help the city’s Black community have greater. Accessibility to economic opportunity and an overall better well-being.
Knight and his wife have also dedicated to sizable donations to fight cancer through a Portland-based initiative. In 2008, the couple made a $100 million gift in to recruit leading researchers in the field to Oregon Health & Science University. In 2015, they followed up that commitment with a $500 million pledge as part of The Knight Cancer Challenge that raised $500 million more from donors from 14 countries.
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