Foundation Guide
A Tour of Our Global Community of Giving
Charles Francis Feeney was born to Irish American parents on April 23, 1931, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His mother was a hospital nurse and his father was an insurance underwriter. Born during the Great Depression, Feeney had a very modest upbringing. After graduating from St. Mary of the Assumption High School in 1949, he served as a U.S. Air Force radio operator during the Korean War before attending Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, graduating in 1956.
Duty-free shopping was a new concept in 1960 when Feeney and college classmate Robert Miller founded the Duty Free Shoppers Group, travel retailer of luxury products based in Hong Kong. Through the 1960s and 1970s DFS Group significantly expanded its operations in Europe, North America, and Asia, and by the mid-1990s was making profits of around $300 million a year. In 1996, Feeney decided to sell his stakes in DFS to the French luxury conglomerate Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
Miller opposed the sale, which prompted Feeney to reveal that in 1984 he had already transferred his whole 38.75% stake in DFS – then worth around $500 million – to Atlantic Philanthropies, a foundation he had created in 1982.
Atlantic then made a further $1.63 billion from the 1996 sale to LVMH. Feeney had already been giving away his fortune in secret for many years, choosing to remain anonymous until his identity had to be revealed. At its height, Atlantic had more than 300 employees and 10 offices around the world. Over 37 years of activity, Feeney donated more than $8 billion and finally closed down the Atlantic Philanthropies in 2020 after accomplishing his goal of giving away all of his money in his lifetime.
Feeney and his foundation helped build more than 1,000 buildings across five continents, none of which bear his name, and he didn’t own a home – after giving away his fortune, he and his wife lived in a rented apartment until his death in 2023. He was buried in Ireland.
The largest single beneficiary of Feeney’s giving was his alma mater Cornell University, which received nearly $1 billion. Through Atlantic, he donated $570 million in Northern Ireland, primarily for the peace process, shared education, dementia care, and children’s services, and $1.3 billion in the Republic of Ireland to advance higher education and human and civil rights for those marginalized in Irish society.
In Vietnam, Atlantic grants of $382 million helped modernize the country’s public health system and revitalize libraries and universities. In South Africa, the foundation invested $422 million to advance justice, equality, education and health care.
Atlantic’s investments in Cuba totaled over $66 million in support of organizations working to improve health care, with some donations also funding work to help normalize relations between Cuba and the United States. In Australia, Atlantic’s grants of $368 million reached 23 higher education institutes and co-funded the creation of eight new biomedical research facilities. Feeney also supported Operation Smile‘s free surgeries for children with cleft lips and palates, earthquake relief in Haiti, and the UCSF Medical Center.
