The foundation run by Linda McMahon has directed millions of dollars toward education causes over the past two decades, offering a glimpse into the personal priorities of the businesswoman President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to serve as secretary of education.
Aside from her university alma mater and a Catholic university in Connecticut where she鈥檚 long served on the board of trustees, a charter school network with schools in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island, and the local Boys and Girls Club that runs after-school and student enrichment programs in Stamford, Conn., have been among the recipients of funds from the foundation run by McMahon and her husband Vince.
Connecticut social service agencies and health care organizations have also been among the beneficiaries of donations from the , according to an Education Week review of the foundation鈥檚 publicly available tax records dating back to 2006.
Linda McMahon amassed her fortune through decades of growing World Wrestling Entertainment into a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
The foundation鈥檚 giving, though, reflects a longtime interest in education from McMahon, once an aspiring French teacher who served a short stint on Connecticut鈥檚 state board of education before launching her first of two unsuccessful bids to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. And some of the donations have aligned with education policy priorities she鈥檚 voiced over the years鈥攊ncluding charter schools, literacy promotion, and career and technical education.
As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider her nomination next month, the donations also offer another data point to consider for a nominee without an extensive education track record.
Where McMahon鈥檚 foundation is spending its money
Established in 2006 in Connecticut, the McMahons鈥� family foundation has donated more than $20 million to roughly 80 different organizations, sending money to children鈥檚 museums, organizations focused on literacy, hospitals, emergency shelters, and groups doing diabetes research and autism awareness, according to an Education Week analysis of the foundation鈥檚 public tax records.
Many of the donations have supported organizations in Connecticut, but occasionally the foundation has sent money to programs elsewhere, like the Houston Public Library and the Florida-based Bullard Family Foundation, a charity founded by WWE star and former NFL player Thad Bullard.
Some of the foundation鈥檚 donations have gone directly toward public education. The foundation sent one-off donations to Cloonan Middle School, which is part of the Stamford school district, and to the Stamford Public Education Foundation. (WWE鈥檚 headquarters are located in Stamford.)
It also donated several times to the Greenwich Alliance for Education, a group that mobilizes community resources to support public school students in nearby Greenwich, Conn. It also gave to the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now, a chapter of the larger 50CAN, an education equity advocacy organization with business leader support.
And sums from the foundation have also flowed to religious schools鈥攆inancing scholarships at Notre Dame Catholic High School in Fairfield, Conn., and helping to fund a new youth center for the Archdiocese of Hartford Catholic 69传媒.
Sacred Heart University, a Catholic university in Connecticut where McMahon has long served as a trustee, has been the largest recipient of foundation funds, receiving at least $12 million over the years. East Carolina University, McMahon鈥檚 alma mater in North Carolina, received more than $2 million.
The foundation鈥檚 publicly available tax records from 2012 are incomplete, so totals to individual charities could be higher.
After the two universities, the top recipients of foundation funds have been Achievement First, a charter school network operating 41 K-12 schools in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York鈥攖o which the foundation has given at least $1.97 million鈥攁nd the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, which has received more than $1.2 million from the foundation.
While the McMahons鈥� foundation gave at least $1 million annually to charitable causes in its first 11 years, from 2006 through 2016, its giving slowed down starting in 2017, when McMahon became head of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump鈥檚 first term.
The foundation gave about $460,000 that year. It鈥檚 given out $350,000 each in 2022 and 2023.
A director who served on the foundation鈥檚 board declined to comment. Recipients of the grants did not respond to requests for comment.
Billionaires have long contributed to education reform causes
McMahon is not unusual as a billionaire giving to charitable and education reform causes, though others鈥攁lbeit with more assets鈥攈ave given much greater sums.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for example, has poured billions into math education and before that spent millions of dollars on initiatives to make teachers more effective, among other undertakings.
Eli Broad made his mark on the charter school sector and shaped hundreds of school leaders through a training academy. Elon Musk has recently turned his attention to starting a private school in Texas after opening another one in California.
And Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg poured $100 million into school reforms in Newark, N.J., before forming the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with his wife Priscilla, which continually gives to education causes.
(Education Week receives support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Education Week retains sole editorial control over its coverage.)
鈥淲hen it comes to the bigger players, I think there鈥檚 a genuine concern that America is falling behind in education. I think they feel like they are educated, bright people, and therefore they鈥檙e able to fix it,鈥� said Robin Rogers, a professor of sociology at Queens College, City University of New York. 鈥淭here has been a decline in American education, but I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 necessarily for the reasons that the billionaires think it鈥檚 for.鈥�
And with McMahon, the foundation giving in recent years has paled in comparison to her political giving.
McMahon herself gave roughly $15 million in 2024 alone to the Make America Great Again PAC, which supported Trump鈥檚 latest reelection effort, according to Federal Election Commission records.
In 2023, the foundation made a total of $350,000 in charitable contributions.
Top recipients of McMahon鈥檚 family foundation
Education Week tallied the value of donations the McMahons鈥� family foundation has made using from 2006 to 2023. The top recipients are shown below.
