Michael Jordan

Jordan has directed much of his generosity to organizations and initiatives that benefit families and kids — especially the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children battling critical illnesses, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, which provides after-school enrichment programs for underserved youth. In 1996, having played collegiately  for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, Jordan gave USD 1 million to establish the Jordan Institute for Families, a center within the UNC School of Social Work that provides support services to families facing social-economic challenges.

Jordan maintains a strong commitment to other North Carolina cities that have shaped his life – particularly Wilmington, where he grew up, and Charlotte, where he was majority owner of the NBA Charlotte Hornets from 2010-2023. Between 2017 and 2021, Jordan donated USD 17 million to fund four Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics, two in Charlotte and two in Wilmington, to provide integrated health services to uninsured and under-insured patients. In 2018, Jordan gave USD 2 million to support emergency relief efforts for North Carolina communities devastated by Hurricane Florence.

Jordan has also given millions of dollars to youth organizations in Chicago, the city where he became a basketball legend. To celebrate the historic contributions Black athletes have made to American society, Jordan made a USD 5 million gift to fund a Sports Gallery within the_ _Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2016.

In 2020, amid the national outcry sparked by the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minneapolis police officers, Jordan and the Jordan Brand (a division of Nike) pledged to donate USD 100 million over ten years to U.S. organizations dedicated to racial equality, social justice and access to education. Announcing the pledge, Jordan and Nike unequivocally declared, “Black lives matter. This isn’t a controversial statement.”

In 2016 Jordan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Although his philanthropy deepens his prodigious legacy, Jordan remains humble about his generosity. As he said to Craig Melvin in a 2019 interview, “I give for the sake of giving, not to advertise…not to promote.” With an estimated net worth of USD 3.5 billion as of 2023, Jordan remains uniquely positioned to exert an enormous impact across the philanthropic landscape.

Contributors: Maha Tazi, Erin Brown