On Sept. 15, 2026, Oregon billionaires Phil and Penny Knight committed $1.1 billion to the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Heart Institute to build Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health, the medical center announced Tuesday.

Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and his wife, have supported the institute for more than a decade, previously giving it more than $200 million, including a $75 million gift earlier this year. Along with creating the new women’s hospital, their new donation will help the medical center expand cardiovascular care and clinical research and training programs for the heart institute’s medical personnel. It will also make it easier to integrate patient care across the medical center.

The donation is particularly significant because it comes at a moment when U.S. hospitals are seeing far more pregnant patients who are also managing chronic health conditions like diabetes, hypertension, addiction, and behavioral and mental health issues. It also lands at the same time healthcare organizations are struggling with the impact of government funding cuts.

Medicine and medical research have been among the top causes capable of attracting mega-philanthropy ever since the birth of modern philanthropy in the late 19th century, said Benjamin Soskis, a historian whose work focuses on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.

Counting pledges and direct gifts, the Knights’ latest commitment pushes their total charitable giving to more than $9 billion over the past two decades, with about $2.5 billion of that going to their family foundation and donor-advised funds. They have appeared on the Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 50 list of the biggest donors 12 times since 2006.