In 2025, Michael and Susan Dell made the largest single charitable commitment in American history: $6.25 billion to create investment accounts for 25 million young Americans. Every eligible child would receive $250 in an account designed to grow over time — a financial foundation for a generation of kids who had never had one.
The premise was simple and radical. Wealth in America compounds. If your family has assets, those assets grow, and your children start life with a floor under their feet. If your family has nothing, your children start with nothing, and the gap widens every year. The Dells looked at that math and decided to change the starting conditions for 25 million kids.
This wasn't a foundation grant or a policy proposal. It was a direct transfer — real money into real accounts with real children's names on them. The scale was staggering. Twenty-five million children is roughly one in seven American kids. The Dells weren't building a program. They were seeding a generation.
Most philanthropy addresses problems after they've taken root. This one planted something before the problems had a chance to start.
"Perhaps the reason the Universe gave you a broken world is so that you could have a chance to fix it."