Recently I discovered that both David Koch Junior and his sister Mary Julia Koch each have their own charitable foundations. I have previously discussed Chase Koch and his family foundation here. Family foundations are required to file a tax return with the IRS each year and report any contributions and also any distributions to charity as well. Foundations are legally required to distribute 5% of their assets each year. Previously I covered David Koch and his giving here. David Koch Jr Foundation was created in August 2022. David Jr's mother Julia Koch also has her own family foundation as well (along with a website as well). The family foundation for Julia Koch, Mary Julia, and David Koch Jr. have mission statement "to promote the common good and general welfare of the community".
David Jr suffers from severe nut and shellfish allergies and has to carry an epi-pen. His parents in 2017 donated $10 million to Stanford to perform research on allergy and asthma and the new allergy clinic was established in 2022. The money donated was used to create a 4,000 square foot facility that featured 14 exam bays and allowed for 20-30 appointments per day.
Mary Julia Koch gave $5 million to Harvard University for launch grants and undergraduate scholarships. Mary Julia graduated from Harvard University in 2023 as a history major and also was the editor in chief of the Harvard Independent (Harvard student newspaper). Academically while she was at Harvard she did extremely well. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history and graduated cum laude from Harvard College. In addition she was named John Harvard Scholar (top 5% of her class). I am sure her father would be proud as in 1987 David Koch would reflect on his college experience as "great friends, wild parties, athletic triumphs, academic successes, and actually learning something useful".
The Julia Koch Foundation is the largest foundation for the family. The foundation was established in February 2023 and had contributions of $55 million. In February 2024 Julia Koch Family Foundation gave $75 million to NYU Lagoon Health Ambulatory Care Center in West Palm Beach for a state of the art facility. The eight story facility will have enough space for 50 doctors and serve 150 patients annually. As part of a press release Julia Koch can mention that her and her family had been impressed by NYU Langone for the past 20 years.
Julia like her children also gave $5 million away to a school that she attended. Julia gave $5 million to University of Central Arkansas (she graduated in 1984 with a degree in marketing and was a Gamma Beta Phi-in the top 20% of her class and here she is her junior year, sophomore year, and freshman year. She wanted to support educational initiatives for the College of Arts, Humanities, and social sciences. Julia came for very humble beginnings in a small town in Conway, Arkansas (her house growing up was less than 2,000 square feet and 2 and half baths). In 1998 she had told the New York Times that she thanked God every day and in the 1980s was making $200 per week (this would be around $32,000 in 2025 dollars) as a fashion designer assistant and was worried about paying the rent and finding taxis in the rain. She had said that those were very hard days and she enjoyed taking on the role of being David Koch's wife. Julia and David went on their first date in January 1991 and after the date Julia said "I'm glad I met that man because know I know I will never go out with him". Apparently on the date David claimed he was a little too forward with his humor. After 6 months Julia and David ran into each other and David introduced himself and not realizing they had previously gone out. Julia had to remind David of this and David had to get out his "trusty black book" to confirm. By 1995 they were looking at purchasing a home together (at Julia's urging since David had a 1970's UN Plaza bachelor pad). David was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer 1995 and after dating for four and a half years gave David two choices he would "be a live husband or a dead bachelor" (they were married in May 1996). Julia worked as a fashion designer assistant in the 1980's and early 1990's however hasn't worked since 1993.
For 2023 when you add up the assets of the Julia Koch Foundation ($65 million), the Mary Julia Koch Foundation (~$3 million), and the David Koch Jr. Foundation ($23 million) gets roughly $91 million of assets. As I write this in February 2025 Julia Koch is worth roughly $74 billion. The contributions for 2023 were $55 million (Julia Koch), $7.6 million (Mary Julia Koch), and $28 million (David Koch Jr.) which is around $90 million of charitable contributions for 2023.
In the last estimate I had for the Koch family I had estimated that the dividends for David Koch's family would be $193 million per year (this was based on Koch Industries having $115 billion of revenue per year). My new update for the dividend amount is $210 million per year (the revenues for Koch Industries has increased to $125 billion per year). If Julia Koch and her family are receiving dividends of $210 million per year and giving away $90 million per year (for 2023) this would say the family is giving away over 40% of their income to charity. David Koch back in 1999 told MIT Spectrum that he regularly gave away 50% of his income every year. It appears the family even after he has passed is consistent with this principal. Giving to charity does help their federal and any state income taxes they may owe as well.
Clearly the Koch family has come into money after David Koch passed. Although the family does not give a large portion of their assets they are giving away nearly 40% of their income which is a large percentage considering most religious organizations suggest tithing at only 10%. Also, it should be pointed out that all these organizations they are giving to are not political in any nature and are only to their former schools and for medical research.
