Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney

The Billionaire Who Wasn't

Charles F. “Chuck” Feeney ’56 (1931-2023), was the founding chairman of
The Atlantic Philanthropies and Cornell University’s most generous donor.
Chuck quietly devoted his fortune to worldwide causes for decades
and invested nearly $1 billion in Cornell through his foundation.

“Giving While Living” Video

Running time: 1 min 35 sec

Video

More About Chuck Feeney

Impact at Cornell and Beyond

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  • Welcome
  • Cornell Tech
  • The Cornell Tradition
  • Buildings and Spaces
  • Academic Initiatives
  • Global Impact
  • Giving While Living

Impact at Cornell

Cornell Tech

In 2011, Chuck Feeney’s foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, committed $350 million – the largest-ever single gift to Cornell, and one of the largest in the history of higher education – to fund the first-phase of construction and program development at Cornell Tech and create a permanent endowment to help sustain its future. A graduate applied science and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City, Cornell Tech is designed to build New York’s tech capacity, spur innovation and entrepreneurship, and help position the city as a global tech center.

The Cornell Tradition

Chuck Feeney’s first and very last gifts through Atlantic created and secured a program close to his heart—The Cornell Tradition. The Tradition is a contemporary expression of Ezra Cornell’s vision that all students who were willing to work hard, earn good grades, and dedicate themselves to serving their communities would find a place at the university, regardless of their financial situation. Each year, up to 500 Cornell undergraduates are recognized as Cornell Tradition Fellows and have access to essential student loan relief. Collectively, they help to sustain the values of service, work, and scholarship that are so central to Cornell and were shared by Chuck Feeney.

More than 6,000 Tradition Fellows so far.

Buildings and Spaces

Select Cornell capital projects supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies

North & West Campus

Thanks to support from Atlantic, Cornell began housing all first-year students on a rebuilt and renovated North Campus in 2001, and constructed state-of-the-art residences for students in their second year and beyond on West Campus. The initiative also provided support to create “living-learning communities” that foster meaningful dialogue between students and faculty outside of the classroom.

Students walk and bike across a small quad
An aerial view of several buildings

Cornell Athletics

Bartels Hall houses Newman Arena (home of men’s & women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and women’s fencing), the Friedman Strength and Conditioning Center, the Lindseth Climbing Center, and the Cornell Outdoor Education Program, as well as coaches’ offices and locker rooms. Atlantic’s investment combined with a generous gift from Henry and Nancy Bartels, both Class of 1948, allowed Athletics to fundraise for endowed coaching positions that have further enhanced the competitiveness of Cornell’s varsity programs.

Student athletes wait outside Bartels Hall with their gear

Cornell Library

Cornell’s Kroch Library, named by legendary bookseller Carl A. Kroch, Class of 1935, is a state-of-the-art, three-story underground library. It opened in 1992 and houses more than 1.3 million volumes, including the university’s renowned Asia Collections and its Rare & Manuscript Collection, which documents the history of human experience—from cuneiform tablets to comic books, and from Shakespeare to hip-hop. Atlantic’s Archives are in the Rare & Manuscript Collection, chronicling the foundation’s giving over nearly 35 years.

A document from one of Krock Library's collections

School of Hotel Administration

A graduate of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration, Chuck Feeney made a number of grants commemorating his experience as a “Hotelie” and supporting the experiences of contemporary students. Atlantic invested in the construction of the Statler Hotel and its J.W. Marriott Conference Center, as well as the Robert A. and Jan M. Beck Center that provides vital classroom and office space. Together, these facilities create one of the finest hospitality management teaching facilities in the world.

Statler Hall on the Ithaca campus

The Martin Y. Tang Welcome Center

This first-ever stand-alone welcome center serves the needs of thousands of campus visitors every year. Named in honor of Martin Tang ’70, and his family, the center houses an exhibit that spotlights Cornell’s history and values, as well as this station dedicated to Chuck Feeney. Given Chuck’s extraordinary humility and an early desire for complete anonymity, this is one of the few places on campus where you will find his name.

Visitors approaching the front entrance of the Welcome Center

Feeney Way

In 2021, Cornell renamed East Avenue on the Ithaca campus “Feeney Way” in honor of Chuck’s 90th birthday, to recognize his impact on the university, and as an inspiration to future generations of Cornellians. A second “Feeney Way” was named on a central thoroughfare on the Cornell Tech campus in New York City in 2023. A Feeney Way was unveiled at the University of Limerick in Ireland, also in 2023, as well as one at the University of Queensland in Australia in 2022 – additional tributes to Feeney’s global impact, especially on higher education.

A street sign that says Feeney Way

The Cornell Club (New York City)

The Cornell Club in New York City is a gathering space for Cornell alumni and friends in midtown Manhattan. In addition to its 48 hotel rooms, the club provides space for business meetings and social gatherings.

The entrance to the Cornell Club in Manhattan

Weill Cornell Medicine

Funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies allowed Cornell to purchase the site in Manhattan where the 15-story Weill-Greenberg Center now stands. The center is a critical building for Weill Cornell Medicine, housing world-class medical education and research facilities and clinical programs.

Cornell Tech

The first phase of construction on Cornell Tech’s Roosevelt Island campus included five buildings: the Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Center, the Tata Innovation Center, The House, the Verizon Executive Education Center, and the Graduate New York Hotel.

A green park at the heart of Cornell Tech

Academic Initiatives

The Atlantic Philanthropies’ support for several fundraising “challenge” campaigns in the late 1990s and early 2000s allowed Cornell to raise critical endowment support for named professorships, scholarships, and programs.

Portrait of Dr. Kim Weeden sitting on a desk

Faculty Support

The impact of challenge campaigns was immense. Most profound though was the ability they gave Cornell to recruit and retain many of the extraordinary faculty on the campus today, and to think big about those academic priorities that are most important to the university’s future and make the necessary investments.

Pictured: Dr. Kim Weeden, the Jan Rock Zubrow Professor of the Social Sciences and Director of Cornell’s Center for the Study of Inequality, was recruited with funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

A woman working holding grain in a field

CIIFAD

Funding from Atlantic established the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD). With partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, CIIFAD advances food security, sustainable rural development, and environmental conservation around the world. CIIFAD’s System of Rice Intensification (SRI), used in more than 40 countries worldwide, increases the productivity of irrigated rice through the management of plants, soil, water, and nutrients.

A man speaking at a presentation on poverty in America

Center for the Study of Inequality

Atlantic provided critical faculty support for the social sciences at Cornell, helping to create the university’s Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) in 2003, and to endow its directorship and expand its programs and capacity in 2016. CSI fosters research, outreach, and policy impact through faculty fellowships, seed grants for innovative research, and conferences and speakers’ series. Combatting inequality was core to Atlantic’s values and a focus of its grant-making. CSI is linked to the foundation’s broad network of global Atlantic Fellows who will continue this work going forward.

A group of people listening in a lecture hall

Cornell Center for the Death Penalty Worldwide

A grant from Atlantic launched the Cornell Center for Death Penalty Worldwide in 2016. Focused on the abolition of the death penalty both within and outside of the United States, the center provides research, advocacy, and litigation on death penalty issues around the world and educates capital defense lawyers from around the globe on the effective representation of clients.

An aisle of archival storage

The Atlantic Philanthropies Archives

In keeping with Chuck Feeney’s “giving while living” philosophy, Atlantic concluded its grant-making in 2016. The foundation’s archive, housed in Cornell Library’s Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections and including Feeney’s private papers, documents its more than $8 billion in grants over 35 years to advance opportunity, equity, and human dignity. The archive provides a valuable resource for philanthropists and for historians of the countries and causes strengthened by Atlantic’s support.

Global Impact

Chuck Feeney established The Atlantic Philanthropies, a limited-life foundation, in 1982. Over 35 years, Atlantic disbursed more than $8 billion to support promising programs and people in places where it could make a lasting difference during Feeney’s lifetime. It completed grant-making in 2016, closing in 2020 as the largest foundation ever to fully commit its endowment in a limited timeframe. Its early giving was directed largely toward higher education, and in later years focused on aging, children and youth, population health, and reconciliation and human rights—working in Australia, Bermuda, Cuba, Northern Ireland and Ireland, South Africa, the United States and Vietnam.

Giving While Living

Chuck Feeney’s “giving while living” philosophy has inspired many, including philanthropists Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. He’s also inspired countless Cornellians who have given back to the university generously. As Chuck said, “I had one idea that never changed in my mind—that you should use your wealth to help people.”

Chuck Feeney and Bill Gates

I had one idea that never changed in my mind—that you should use your wealth to help people.

Chuck Feeney ’56

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