Billionaire Ken Griffin Donates $25 Million to Success Academy

NEW YORK — Success Academy, which operates charter schools in NY, announced that Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin has made a $25 million gift to expand educational opportunity for 10,000 children in New York City. The gift will increase the capacity of Success Academy by more than 50% over the next five years, allowing more children than ever before to benefit from Success Academy’s evidence-based approach to K-12 education.

Citadel is one of the largest hedge funds in the world and Griffin has a net worth estimated at over $35 billion by Bloomberg.

“We are profoundly grateful for this generous support, and for Ken Griffin’s belief that every child deserves access to great schooling,” said Eva Moskowitz, founder and CEO of Success Academy. “So many poor children are left out of the American Dream because they are assigned to a failing school. We share Ken’s vision of the future for our nation, where every child, regardless of their circumstances, has access to a great school.”

“I am thrilled to support Success Academy’s work to expand access to high-quality education for thousands of students across New York City,” said Griffin. “I passionately believe that a good education is the on-ramp to the American Dream.”

With an enrollment of 20,000, 95% of whom are children of color, admitted by random public lottery, Success Academy schools are among the best in New York State, regularly outperforming affluent suburban and gifted-and-talented schools. In national championships for debate and chess — activities traditionally dominated by selective private and public schools — Success Academy students have consistently placed among the top winners. For the sixth consecutive year, 100% of Success Academy seniors have been accepted to four-year colleges and universities, with about 60% headed to selective and highly selective institutions.

Griffin’s most recent gift builds on his longstanding commitment to unlocking the transformative power of education – and to Success Academy itself. In 2014, Griffin made a $10 million gift to Success Academy that funded the opening of three new public middle schools and sustained the growth of others, allowing thousands of New York City children to access high-quality educational opportunities.

Bloomberg Philanthropies donated $100 million to Success Academy in 2022.