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Atlantic by the Numbers

$8 Billion in Grants Around the World

The Atlantic Philanthropies, founded by Chuck Feeney in 1982, made over $8 billion in grants to advance opportunity and promote equity and dignity around the world. In keeping with our founder’s belief in Giving While Living, we made our last grant commitments in 2016 and will close in 2020.*

over 6,500 grants

nearly 2,500 grantees

an average $1.2M per grant

Explore Our Giving

We invested in promising programs, people and places where we saw the chance to dramatically improve lives. Atlantic’s endowment was funded from the sale of Duty Free Shoppers, and by investments made by General Atlantic Partners and our finance team.

programs funded

Big Bets for a Better World

Many of our grants were big bets to address pressing problems and produce lasting results. Our final and largest series of grants went to establish the Atlantic Fellows program to advance fairer, healthier, more inclusive societies.

$3.7b

to strengthen health care, university research and innovation

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$740m

to build and support a global network of thousands of Atlantic Fellows

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$350m

for the new Cornell Tech campus on NYC’s Roosevelt Island

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Operating for a Limited Life

More than 300 staff worked at Atlantic over the years, with the foundation peaking at 124 employees in 2010. We opened regional offices in several geographies and closed them as our work wound down.

* Atlantic earmarked all of its final grant commitments in 2016, primarily for the Atlantic Fellows programs. Some of these commitments were granted in subsequent years leading up to Atlantic's closure in 2020.