How Paul Allen’s will is set to turn the $9.6B Seattle Seahawks sale into philanthropy
Philanthropic footprint
Allen Family Philanthropies reported a milestone year in 2025, distributing a total of $59 million to 136 organizations. Of that, 55 new grants were approved during the year, totaling $36 million, according to the foundation’s Year in Review 2025 report.
Executive Director Lara Littlefield wrote that the foundation has increasingly organized its grantmaking around thematic and geographic “initiatives” rather than standalone gifts, arguing the approach builds stronger networks among grantees working toward shared goals across arts and culture, youth empowerment, and environmental causes.
Grantees highlighted in the report span Seattle arts hub Common Area Maintenance, Native Conservancy’s seaweed farming and carbon sequestration work in coastal Alaska, and Washington Youth Alliance, a youth-led civic organizing network now operating 10 chapters statewide. A Seahawks sale in the $9.6 billion range dwarfs the foundation’s historical annual giving capacity many times over.
Khosla fortune
Khosla’s fortune traces back to Khosla Ventures, the venture capital firm he launched in 2004 following nearly two decades as a partner at Kleiner Perkins.
Today the firm oversees around $15 billion across a portfolio spanning well over a thousand companies, and its single biggest win by far has been getting in early on OpenAI, becoming the AI company’s first institutional backer in 2019. The firm’s fingerprints are also on Block, Affirm, DoorDash, Instacart, Stripe and Rocket Lab.
