“What Jim and Virginia Stowers envisioned is nothing short of extraordinary: they created an Institute that today is a veritable engine of discovery,” said Stowers Institute Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado. “More importantly, Jim’s and Virginia’s gift is simultaneously an act of courage and optimism in the ability of our species to vanquish the unknown. Mine and our members’ responsibility is to be deserving of this gift.”

In a remarkably analogous step, Yvon Chouinard, his wife, and two children decided to establish the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit organization through which Patagonia’s profits each year will be funneled and distributed for the benefit of our planet. The prescience connecting these two unprecedented charitable contributions invokes a sense of déjà vu.

For the Chouinards, whose motto was reinvented in 2018 to “We’re in business to save our home planet,” approximately $100 million dollars per year in profits will go toward mitigating climate change. For the Stowers,’ to ensure their mission would continue to be fulfilled long after their lives, they established a giving model where more than 40% of American Century profits are distributed to the Institute each year as dividends.

The Stowers were one of the pioneers in philanthropic giving and investing in humankind. Since opening its doors in 2000, the Institute has received over $1.8 billion in dividends, a nearly identical yearly sum to that anticipated from the Holdfast Collective.

Both families not only gave the amount required from signing the Giving Pledge—the commitment to bestow most of one’s fortune to charity—but essentially all their formerly billionaire statuses.

“By donating their fortune for the betterment of humankind, Jim and Virginia created a rare and precious opportunity for us to meaningfully contribute to our collective desire and effort to advance human knowledge,” said Sánchez Alvarado.

While Stowers’ scientists are tackling the foundations for how life works to improve life’s quality, the Chouinards are helping ensure that there will be a life worth improving.

Emblazoned on the stone pillar on the Stowers Institute’s campus is “Hope for Life,” a sentiment that resonates for the Stowers’ and the Chouinards’ philanthropy, insight, foresight, and, for lack of a better word, hope.