November 25, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The philanthropy of America’s richest family — the widow and four children of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart — “is a giant just beginning to stir,” according to a profile of the heirs in Fortune magazine (November 15). “What the family does with its great wealth — think Rockefellers for a moment — could leave a lasting mark on the nation.”
The Waltons, who keep a low profile, control about 39 percent of the Wal-Mart stock, which is worth about $90-billion, the magazine says, and the family’s holdings produce a “dividend stream” of nearly $880-million each year.
“It is reasonable, and useful, to consider the Waltons’ combined wealth this way because the family members act and think collectively,” the magazine says. “They are constantly in touch with each other and with family advisors, and they meet three times a year to discuss and manage their fortune.”
The magazine describes the family’s charitable efforts, which last year included a $300-million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation to the University of Arkansas (Wal-Mart’s headquarters is in Bentonville, Ark.), and $106.9-million in grants from the Walton Family Foundation, most of which supported education.
Another major beneficiary was an organization co-founded by Sam Walton’s son John. “The largest single recipient of Walton foundation money in K-12 education has been the Children’s Scholarship Fund, a nonprofit organization that John co-founded five years ago with Ted Forstmann, the colorful Wall Street buyout artist,” the magazine says. “More than 62,000 children in 38 cities and towns across the country have received scholarships from CSF.”
Fortune says the Waltons now face a key question: What does the future hold for their philanthropy?
“It’s likely that our giving over time will grow, and it will be substantial,” John Walton tells the magazine. “And it is unlikely that the three focus areas that we now have [education, Northwest Arkansas, and the state’s delta region] will remain the only focus areas that we have. I think our foundation giving may have lagged some expectations, but our measurement has not been how much can we give away, but are we making a difference?”
In the end, concludes the magazine, if the Waltons “ever want to join the top tier of great American philanthropic families, they may have to take the initiative and the responsibility for great accomplishments upon themselves.”
The article is available online to the magazine’s subscribers at http://fortune.com.
