Billionaire Ken Griffin provides $20 million to Miami Dade Faculty weeks after $300 million Harvard donation

• Billionaire Ken Griffin donated $20 million to Miami Dade Faculty to launch a brand new scholarship.
• In a graduation deal with on the school, he advised graduates to seek out options to America’s issues.

Ken Griffin’s South Florida spending spree has now benefited a school the place greater than half the scholars are from low-income households.

On Saturday, the billionaire founding father of hedge fund Citadel donated $20 million to Miami Dade Faculty, one of many nation’s largest and most numerous colleges.

Griffin — who took dwelling $4.1 billion in earnings final yr, based on Institutional Investor — has donated tons of of tens of millions to training. Earlier this month, Griffin gave $300 million to Harvard College, his Ivy League alma mater, the place he has now donated greater than $500 million.

The billionaire, whose $54 billion hedge fund had its most profitable yr in 2022, has additionally been making important charitable presents to South Florida organizations since transferring his agency’s headquarters to Miami final yr.

In accordance with a press release, Miami Dade Faculty will use the cash to ascertain the Griffin Scholarship Fund, which is able to give all qualifying college students graduating from highschool in Miami-Dade County an opportunity at a school training. It is the biggest single philanthropic reward within the school’s historical past.

Faculties like Miami Dade are “the on-ramp to the American Dream,” stated Griffin in a graduation speech to Miami Dade Faculty graduates on Saturday afternoon.

The Florida native inspired them to “discover the options” to the nation’s many points, like creating clear power, educating youngsters, addressing the housing disaster, and combating the well being problems with an ageing society.

“Greater than ever, America wants management,” he stated. “We want it in our enterprise, in our authorities, in our civic society. And you may be the longer term leaders of America.”

Different Sunshine State donations embrace a $25 million reward to Nicklaus Youngsters’s Hospital to construct a brand new state-of-the-art surgical tower. Griffin, a soccer fan, additionally gave $5 million to develop 50 million new mini-pitches in Miami-Dade County.

He is additionally develop into a big political donor, particularly as a notable backer of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Throughout the 2022 election cycle, he donated greater than $71 million to conservative political teams.

In an interview with Insider’s Dakin Campbell in 2022, Griffin stated he needs to present most of his $35 billion fortune away throughout his lifetime.

“I’ll give my cash away in a means that I feel has an actual affect for our nation,” he stated. “I hope that the presents I make will have an effect on America and the world for a few years to come back.”