# Phil Knight

Source: https://onco.cc/people/phil-knight/  
OnCo record `phil-knight` (Person). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Phil and Penny Knight gave OHSU $100 million in 2008, a $500 million challenge in 2013 that Oregon met within two years, and $2 billion in 2025, described by OHSU as the largest gift to a US university.

## Summary

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his wife Penny have made the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University one of the best-funded cancer centres in the world. OHSU's history records a $100 million gift in 2008, after which the institute took the Knights' name; a $500 million challenge grant in 2013 that required OHSU to raise a matching $500 million; and, in 2015, the meeting of the $1 billion Knight Cancer Challenge with the help of a $100 million gift from Gert Boyle and $200 million in bonds from the Oregon Legislature. In 2025 the Knights gave a further $2 billion, described by OHSU as the largest gift to a US university in history, to fund Brian Druker's vision of transforming cancer care. Druker, the institute's director, led the clinical development of imatinib, the first targeted cancer drug; the Knight money built the Knight Cancer Research Building and a programme aimed at detecting lethal cancers early.

## Fields

- Kind: Person
- Last checked: 2026-09-10
- Also known as: Phil and Penny Knight
- Tags: hero; donor
- Role: Nike co-founder whose gifts to OHSU Knight Cancer Institute total more than $2.6 billion
- Specialisms: Cancer centre building; Early detection research; Challenge grants

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Knight
- OHSU Knight Cancer Institute: mission and history: https://www.ohsu.edu/knight-cancer-institute/knight-cancer-institute-mission-and-history

## Connected records

- fronts: [Early Detection & Screening](https://onco.cc/fronts/early-detection/)
- drugs: [Imatinib](https://onco.cc/drugs/imatinib/)
- institutions: [OHSU Knight Cancer Institute](https://onco.cc/institutions/ohsu-knight/)
- people: [Brian Druker](https://onco.cc/people/brian-druker/), [Gert Boyle](https://onco.cc/people/gert-boyle/)
- bottlenecks: [Funding follows fashion, not burden](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/), [The hardest cancers are found late](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-early-detection/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/phil-knight.json