Cargill Philanthropies

Anticipated windfall to launch Cargill Philanthropies into grantmaking stratosphere

A group of foundations set up by one of the heirs to the Cargill Corporation, who died in 2006, could soon become the third wealthiest grantmaker in the US. The foundations, known collectively as the Margaret A Cargill Philanthropies, could receive between them a sum in the region of $9 billion as a result of the conversion of non-liquid shares in the private Cargill Corporation into shares in a public company largely owned by Cargill, Mosaic. The expected windfall would propel the group overnight into an exclusive sphere occupied hitherto only by the Gates and Ford Foundations. Where the money will go is not fully clear as yet. The three foundations – the Anne Ray Charitable Trust, the Margaret A Cargill Foundation and the Akaloa Resource Foundation – have a very broad remit ‘to provide meaningful assistance and support to society, the arts, the environment, and all living things’. In preparation for the expected infusion, the Margaret A Cargill Foundation has taken on 30 staff members, with more apparently to come, and is scheduled to begin grantmaking this year in arts and culture, the environment, and relief and development.

Source
Chronicle of Philanthropy, 21 January 2011