Hillman’s fortune of $800M to largely benefit Pittsburgh
When Henry L. Hillman began his estate planning 50 years ago, his goals were to provide first for his family, and then for his foundations.
The billionaire Pittsburgh financier who died last month at age 98 appears to have achieved that with his will, which is set to distribute an estimated $800 million fortune among 14 philanthropies maintained by the Hillman family — with the vast majority of the money targeted for the fund that supports initiatives in southwestern Pennsylvania.
With the $800 million gift from his estate, the combined assets of the family foundations will jump from $435 million to $1.2 billion, pushing Hillman into the ranks of Pittsburgh’s biggest philanthropies.
An estimated $700 million of the total will go to the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, which will expand its annual grantmaking in the Pittsburgh region from about $7 million to about $40 million, said David Roger, president of the Hillman Family Foundations.
“It was important to Henry to have it work in Pittsburgh,” Mr. Roger said.
The rest will be allocated among 13 foundations that are headed by Mr. Hillman’s four children and nine grandchildren, and which distribute money to causes in other regions of the U.S. in addition to Pittsburgh.
Mr. Hillman’s will, expected to be filed with the Allegheny County Register of Wills within the next few days, includes assets valued at about $800 million, Mr. Roger said.
Though Forbes magazine consistently ranked Mr. Hillman among the wealthiest men in the world and recently pegged his net worth at $2.6 billion, Mr. Roger
said that figure likely includes assets that have been transferred to family members.
Although Mr. Hillman and his wife, Elsie, who died in 2015, were best recognized as philanthropists for the millions of dollars they contributed to build high-profile projects such as UPMC’s Hillman Cancer Center, the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library and the Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies at Carnegie Mellon University, the couple’s giving reached deep into initiatives that work to improve the quality of life in Pittsburgh.
For instance, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation gave $6 million over the last two years to nonprofit organizations that address food access for the hungry and programs that rescue and distribute wasted food.
It made $10 million in grants over the last several years to nonprofits that use innovation to address community problems. One is a venture at Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania that allows cash-strapped nonprofits and small businesses to use Goodwill’s fleet of trucks at reduced rates.
Other Hillman grants have benefited organizations that assist at-risk youth with entrepreneurship, and provided seed money for health initiatives like the Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank.
“I think Henry Hillman and the Hillman legacy has been one of very personal involvement in the community,” said Grant Oliphant, president of the Heinz Endowments.
The infusion of money the Hillman foundations will receive from Mr. Hillman’s estate puts them among the top four Pittsburgh foundations ranked by assets.
The largest, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, has assets with a fair market value of $2.3 billion. The Heinz Endowments’ assets are valued at $1.5 billion and the Pittsburgh Foundation’s are at about $1 billion.
Mr. Oliphant called the estate’s gift to the Hillman foundations “extraordinary news.”
“It illustrates one of the ways in which Pittsburgh has been especially blessed over the years with philanthropists who not only leave behind large legacies, but leave them for the benefit of this community and region in particular.”
Maxwell King, president and chief executive of the Pittsburgh Foundation, said the money targeted for the Hillman foundations and the impact it will have on Pittsburgh exemplifies Mr. Hillman’s lifelong knack for being “absolutely forwardlooking in his work and philanthropy.”
Although Mr. Hillman was an early investor in cutting-edge Silicon Valley technologies, he always remained focused on what was happening in his hometown, Mr. King said.
“He made the big plays, but he could always see how you had to build the fabric of Pittsburgh and its infrastructure for success.”
The original Hillman Foundation was created in 1951 by Mr. Hillman’s father, industrialist John Hartwell Hillman, to support communities where he operated his coke, steel, coal and chemical businesses.
In 1964, Henry Hillman launched his own foundation and later established foundations for his four children and his grandchildren.
“His experience in philanthropy was so productive that he wanted his children and grandchildren to have thats ame experience” and he gave them the “latitude to invest wherever they live and have impact,” Mr. Roger said. “He knew they wouldn’t always live in Pittsburgh.”
As a result, Hillman money benefits philanthropic endeavors in California, Oregon, Colorado, New Hampshire and New York, as well as Pittsburgh.
Under terms of Mr. Hillman’s estate, his four children’s foundations will each receive $15 million and each of the grandchildren’s foundations will receive $5 million.
Four funds that belong to the family foundations will not receive new money from Mr. Hillman’s estate. Those include the original Hillman Foundation, two foundations established for Mr. Hillman’s sisters, and the Elsie H. Hillman Foundation created in 2006 with an initial gift of $10 million.