Cargill billionaire’s foundation quietly closes after giving out unprecedented $500 million

Minnesota nonprofits have lost a major philanthropic funder this year after an under-the-radar Cargill heir’s foundation quietly closed.

The WEM Foundation sold its Cargill stock and gave away all of its money, totaling an unprecedented $500 million. For more than three decades, the private foundation set up by former Cargill CEO Whitney MacMillan and his wife, Betty MacMillan, kept a low public profile as it gave millions of dollars to nonprofits and schools across Minnesota and the nation.

Then, after Whitney MacMillan died in 2020 at the age of 90, the foundation boosted its charitable giving in 2022 and gave away all of its money last year before dissolving, closing its Minnetonka offices last December.

Several Twin Cities organizations landed record-breaking grants from the foundation as a result, boosting their finances for years to come.

WEM’s “transformational gift” of $25 million to Dunwoody College of Technology in 2022, for instance, is the largest single donation the college has received in more than a century, said Dunwoody President Scott Stallman, adding in a statement that it “has changed lives, enhanced opportunities and transformed the Dunwoody campus.”

Steve Paprocki of Access Philanthropy, a Minneapolis consulting firm that works with nonprofits on fundraising, said he worries the closure will leave a void in Minnesota philanthropy, especially for small nonprofits.

“A lot of those smaller organizations are no longer able to get that kind of money,” he said. “They [WEM] were really well-respected in the funding community.”

Jim Hield, the foundation’s president and a former Cargill manager, didn’t respond to interview requests but said in a statement that, “as planned, the foundation dissolved following Whitney’s passing.” He added that the couple had a “tremendous positive impact on their community by supporting local and national organizations that will continue that legacy for generations to come.”

Hield confirmed that the foundation spent all of its assets in 2023. According to its 2022 tax form, the foundation had $446 million in revenue, most of which was from the $438 million sale of Cargill stock. A spokeswoman confirmed that the foundation gave out more than $500 million between 2022 and 2023.

Even though the foundation has closed its doors, Minnesota nonprofits and schools that received funding said the large donations will make a difference long-term.

“Their generosity leaves an enduring legacy,” said Holly Menninger, executive director of the Bell Museum, which received $19 million from WEM in 2022. “We’re all making a really significant impact on the community and we will continue to do so because of their investments in us.”

Whitney MacMillan, who was listed as Minnesota’s richest billionaire in 2018, had an estimated net worth in 2019 of $5 billion, according to Forbes. He was the last member of the Cargill or MacMillan family to lead Cargill, the largest privately held company in the U.S.

The Cargill and MacMillan families, descendants of the agricultural giant’s founder, W.W. Cargill, are known for being “secretive,” as Forbes called them. Whitney MacMillan, the great-grandson of W.W. Cargill, rarely gave media interviews over his lifetime.

His foundation operated in a similar way, with the website Inside Philanthropy noting that the foundation never had a website or application program, calling it inaccessible and unapproachable.

The WEM Foundation, started in 1988, grew to become one of the top 25 foundations in the state for how much money it distributed. From 2011 to 2021, the WEM Foundation gave an average of about $17 million a year, according to tax forms.

Then in 2022, the foundation’s charitable giving rose drastically, doling out about $204 million, according to tax forms, including more than $20 million to the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, $25 million to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and $25 million to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska.

The $25 million donation to Dunwoody that year is providing scholarships to nearly 400 students, and funding the restoration and renovation of its Minneapolis buildings, Stallman said. In St. Paul, the $19 million to the Bell Museum has helped support new technology and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education efforts, Menninger said. She said the WEM Foundation has supported the museum for years and is its largest benefactor in recent history.

In 2022, the WEM Foundation sold its Cargill stock, according to its tax form, leading to the surge in donations in 2022 and 2023. Their 2023 tax form listing how much they gave out and to whom wasn’t available.

Even the $200 million distributed in 2022 would make WEM one of the largest funders in Minnesota. In 2021 — the most recent year of data — the top five foundations in the state gave $107 to $275 million, according to the Minnesota Council on Foundations. Private foundations are only required to give out 5% of their money a year to charity.

The largest funder in Minnesota that year was another Cargill heir’s charity, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation based in Eden Prairie. Like its namesake — the late granddaughter of W.W. Cargill who was dubbed a “silent philanthropist” for her anonymous gifts — the foundation has also maintained a low-profile and has an invite-only grant process.

At the WEM Foundation, its three employees e-mailed grant recipients last fall to notify them that it was dissolving and closing its Minnetonka office Dec. 15. Paprocki said it’s rare that a family foundation closes and gives away all its money after its founder dies. Betty MacMillan is also on the board of a trust called WEM 2000 Foundation that is still active, according to 2022 IRS data.

“The fact that WEM closed and the way that they did it was very thoughtful and seems to me like a good model to build off for future foundations that close,” said Rob Williams, executive director of Every Meal in Roseville, which provides meals to kids in need.

WEM gave Every Meal a $1.5 million grant in 2023, its largest single donation ever, which helped the nonprofit double its space by buying the building it has long leased to keep up with the rising demand for meals.

“We were amazed,” Williams said about the grant. “This is a really big impact for us.”

According to paperwork filed with the state Attorney General’s Office, which regulates charitable giving, the WEM Foundation had about $18 million last October, and gave out its final grants to a number of small and large Twin Cities organizations, including the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul and the Blake School in Hopkins, MacMillan’s alma mater.

Paprocki said the WEM Foundation was notable for not just giving money to large organizations, but helping smaller nonprofits that don’t often score big grants. He said Cargill family members have set up more than a dozen foundations or charitable funds, but WEM Foundation was the most reputable one among nonprofits for being less bureaucratic and generous.

“They were a seal of approval. If you got money from ... the WEM Foundation, there were a lot of other funders that would be more open to you,” Paprocki said. “I think a lot of people were very sad they went away.”