Vail CEO Robert Katz Announces $31 Million Donation

According to Vail Resorts, Inc., CEO Robert Katz will be making a $31 million donation to his family charitable foundation and donor advised charitable fund.  His donation comes from exercising stock appreciation rights (SARs) that were expiring over the next two years.  Katz received 113,000 shares of Vail Resorts stock, each priced at $275.25.  He will be donating 100% of the shares and proceeds from the sale.

Katz and his wife Elana Amsterdam also announced the following grants:

• $150,000 – The Other Side Academy (Denver) 
  The Other Side Academy (TOSA) is a non-profit, self-sustaining social enterprise modeled after the Delancey Street Foundation in San Francisco. TOSA functions as a school where students learn vocational, pro-social and life skills so they can succeed “on the other side” of addiction and criminal behavior.  This grant will go toward building TOSA’s first facility in Denver.
• $150,000 – Environmental Defense Fund
  Guided by science and economics, EDF looks to tackle urgent environmental threats with practical solutions.  This grant will be used to support EDF’s work promoting innovation and advocacy for clean, efficient and modern energy system that will better protect our health and climate, while boosting the economy.
• $150,000 – Fund for a Safer Future
  Fund for a Safer Future is a non-profit donor collaborative that invests in targeted, practical strategies to reduce gun injuries and deaths.  FSF invests in organizations, research institutes and advocates to strengthen policies that reduce the toll of gun violence by supporting rational, evidence-based policies at the local, state and federal level.

This isn’t the first time Katz and Amsterdam have given back to the community.  In 2017, Katz made a similar donation of $58 million to a new donor advised fund that focused on the behavioral health and alcohol and drug abuse in mountain resort communities.  They’ve donated $650,000 in grants to local community non-profits and made a $750,000 donation in March 2018 to Operation Homefront, an organization that supports military families.  They plan to make another round of grants to non-profits in Vail communities before the end of the year.