20-05-2025
Robert F. Smith
Finance billionaire Robert F. Smith's best-known act of philanthropy came in 2019 when he made a $34 million promise during a commencement address at Morehouse College to pay off the student debt of that year's 396 graduates. Since then, the Vista Equity Partners founder and CEO has continued to center his giving—$265 million over the past decade—on education, housing and health care initiatives that lift up communities of color.
Through his Fund II Foundation, Smith has created internXL, an online platform of 30,000 STEM students, mostly of color, that 300 partner companies use to find job applicants. Other ongoing programs include the Student Freedom Initiative, which offers low-cost loans and other financial assistance to students at historically Black colleges and universities and other minority serving institutions and grants to the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Prostate Cancer Foundation to reduce disparities in health care outcomes for Black people.
Smith, the first Black person to sign the Giving Pledge, has no plans to change the focus of his giving despite the anti-diversity push in Washington, believing the country is better off when everyone is healthier, better educated and more capable of economic success. 'That isn't a race thing,' he says. 'That's a fact thing.'
