Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced he is donating $150 million to the state of Hawaii and its hospitals to help bridge “critical infrastructure gaps” and “ensure continuous care” for the state’s residents.
The funds will go directly to Hawai’i Pacific Health and Hilo Medical Center.
“If you want to have impact, it is important to have focus — and the biggest focus in our philanthropy has been public health because it’s where we feel we can have the biggest impact,” Benioff said in a statement. “But we’ve always been committed to supporting a strong safety net in Hawaii in many areas and have invested heavily in schools, public parks, affordable housing, health care, and first responders.”
The statement says $100 million of the donation will help support the Straub Medical Center in Honolulu by Hawaii Pacific Health, including a complete renovation and redevelopment set to be completed in 2026.
The remaining $50 million will go to Hilo Medical Center to help establish an intensive care unit and fund behavioral health services.
Benioff’s donation alongside his wife Lynne comes on behalf of UCSF Health, which is based in San Francisco.
“Lynne and I are excited to become more public givers to inspire others to give back to and support this beautiful community and to cultivate a more robust culture of philanthropy in Hawaii,” Benioff said. “With this gift, we’re more than doubling our total giving in Hawaii — and we’ll keep going.”
Benioff began purchasing land in Hawaii in 1974 and has purchased an estimated 600 acres of land in the state in the last 20 years, totaling roughly $100 million in valuation.
NPR reported in February that, since 2000, “Benioff has bought at least 38 parcels of land through at least six anonymous limited liability companies, or LLCs.” And while this first decade-plus of land buying in the state focused on beach properties, since the pandemic began, he purchased 22 parcels of land in (or near) Waimea, per the report, a town with low inventory.
Locals tell NPR they are worried about getting priced out, though no one would speak on the record. Benioff, meanwhile, told the outlet that he “fell in love with the aloha spirit” and that the properties are for his family and not Salesforce.
A Benioff spokesperson said the billionaire gave a majority of the land back through charitable initiatives.
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“Marc & Lynne have donated almost 75% of the total land they’ve purchased in Hawaii over the last quarter-century, and well over 90% of the land they’ve purchased since 2020. This includes 282 acres donated to the Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation (HICDC), a non-profit developer of affordable housing, and 158 acres to a separate non-profit that holds the property for HICDC if it chooses to use it, or for other philanthropic purposes if it does not,” a spokesperson for the billionaire told FOX Business.
According to Bloomberg, Benioff’s net worth as of Thursday afternoon was an estimated $10.6 billion.
This story originally appeared on Entrepreneur
