Philip and Nancy Anschutz, Quiet but Prolific Philanthropists

Denver billionaires Philip and Nancy Anschutz made a splash this week when they gave $120 million through their Anschutz Foundation to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for a new health-sciences building and to back research and other programs at the Aurora, Colo., center.

The philanthropists, who are known for keeping a low profile and a tight lid on news about their charitable gifts, have been contributing to the 230-acre campus for many years. In total, the couple have donated nearly $300 million since 2000 to the academic health-care and research center. They have also given nearly $60 million to both public and charter schools over the years. To date, they’ve given a total of more than $2 billion to nonprofits since 1984, according to Ted Harms, the Anschutz Foundation’s executive director.

Philip Anschutz’s wealth, about $12 billion according to Forbes, stems from an array of diversified holdings in oil, railroads, real estate, major-league sports (he is a co-founder of Major League Soccer and owns the Los Angeles Kings hockey team and one-third of the L.A. Lakers basketball team), telecommunications, and entertainment. It’s also in his blood.

He grew up in Kansas, the son of rancher and wildcatter oil tycoon Frederick Anschutz, who started the Anschutz Oil Company in 1939. Philip Anschutz launched his own business, the Anschutz Corporation, in 1962 and grew the holding company’s investments over time.

His land holdings are extensive: He currently ranks No. 27 out of the 100 largest landowners in the United States, according to Land Report magazine, just ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and owns 500 square miles of land in Wyoming that he is turning into the largest onshore wind farm in the country.

Rarely Speak About Their Giving

Anschutz’s politics lean decidedly right. He generally supports Republican candidates. Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch once served as outside counsel for Anschutz and his companies, and the philanthropist allegedly lobbied the George W. Bush administration to nominate Gorsuch to the Federal Appeals Court in 2006, the New York Times reported.

The couple started their eponymous foundation in 1984 to primarily support Colorado charities and causes in the realms of education, health and wellness, human services, Colorado infrastructure, and cultural organizations, as well as a programming area called values and relationships. The grant maker’s assets stand at about $1.4 billion, according to Harms.

In addition to their mega-gifts to the University of Colorado, the 78-year-old Anschutz and his wife have given to their alma mater, the University of Kansas, where a library and sports center are named for them, and in 2000 they launched the Foundation for a Better Life, which promotes compassion, honesty, and other values.

The couple rarely publicize their charitable donations, but in March they allowed two additional gifts to slip through their usual insistence on privacy this year: a $4 million gift to the St. Simons Land Trust to preserve land on St. Simmons Island, in Georgia, where the family owns the Sea Island Company, a high-end resort; and a $1 million donation to the Elton John Aids Foundation to back its LGBT Fund, a program working to tackle the stigma, discrimination, and violence that prevent LGBT people in sub-Saharan Africa from accessing health and HIV services.