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Liz Simons
Status
Born in 1960. Living in Atherton, California.
Criminal status: No personal convictions or pending litigation
Summary
Liz Simons is the co-founder and chair of the Heising-Simons Foundation, which she established with her husband Mark Heising in 2007. The foundation has grown into one of the major private foundations in the United States, distributing more than USD 1.4 billion since its founding across climate and clean energy, science, early childhood education, human rights, and journalism programs.
Before founding the organization, Simons taught ESL and Spanish-bilingual classes and founded Stretch to Kindergarten, an early childhood education initiative. She and Heising signed the Giving Pledge in 2016, committing to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy during their lifetimes.
Business Relationships
Simons co-founded the Heising-Simons Foundation with her husband Mark Heising, a venture investor who later became chair of the Environmental Defense Fund. The foundation's scientific work intersects with the Simons Foundation co-led by her mother Marilyn Simons, with both organizations contributing to projects including the Simons Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert.
Ownership
Simons chairs the board of the Heising-Simons Foundation, the private foundation she co-founded with Mark Heising in Los Altos, California. The foundation held assets of USD 810 million at year-end 2024 and distributes approximately USD 150-175 million annually. Simons exercises influence through foundation governance and grantmaking rather than through any publicly traded company stake.
Family & Heirs
Simons is the daughter of Jim Simons, who founded Renaissance Technologies and died in May 2024, and Marilyn Simons, who continues to co-lead the Simons Foundation. Her brother Nat Simons leads the Sea Change Foundation, a climate-focused philanthropy, and her half-sister Audrey Cappell founded the Foundation for a Just Society in 2011, which funds women's rights and LGBT-rights organizations internationally. She and her husband Mark Heising have children together, including a daughter named Caitlin, whose experience inspired the foundation's human rights work in criminal justice reform according to their Giving Pledge letter.
Evidence
2016-05-12 - 😇 - Heising-Simons Foundation contributes USD 1.7M to Simons Observatory for microwave detector research in Chile's Atacama Desert
2017-01-27 - 😇 - 51 Pegasi b Fellowship inaugural cohort: four planetary astronomy postdocs funded with USD 375K each over 3 years
2022-04-07 - 😇 - MIT welcomes two Heising-Simons 51 Pegasi b Fellows for planetary astronomy research
2022-04-28 - 😇 - American Mosaic Journalism Prize awards USD 100K each to two freelance journalists for excellence in covering underrepresented groups
2022-07-21 - 😇 - Foundation funds KITP Fellows Program for physics faculty at minority-serving institutions to conduct research at UC Santa Barbara
2023-02-17 - 😇 - American Mosaic Journalism Prize 2023 awarded to Cerise Castle and Carvell Wallace for reporting on underrepresented communities
2023-11-01 - 😇 - Foundation joins 10-foundation coalition pledging USD 200M+ to mitigate AI harms and promote responsible AI development
2024-12-31 - 😇 - Foundation awards 671 grants totaling USD 149.6M in 2024; USD 171.8M in total charitable disbursements from USD 810M in assets
2025-01-01 - 😇 - Foundation lifetime giving surpasses USD 1.456B since 2007 across climate, science, education, human rights, and journalism programs
2025-05-07 - 😇 - Liz Simons, as Marshall Project board chair, pledges USD 1M challenge grant matching new or increased donations to support criminal justice journalism
2025-11-01 - 😈 - FEC records show Simons has given more than USD 25M to Democratic campaigns and PACs since 2015, including about USD 10M in the 2024 cycle
Analysis
Simons has directed her philanthropic work across five domains over nearly two decades, with the Heising-Simons Foundation growing from a small family vehicle into one distributing more than USD 170 million annually. The record is characterized by persistence across domains that rarely intersect: an astronomy fellowship now spanning 28 host institutions, an annual journalism prize providing among the largest unrestricted cash awards in the field, and a sustained USD 86 million commitment to immigration and criminal justice reform.
The foundation's AI harms initiative positioned Heising-Simons among the first major foundations to fund the civil rights dimensions of AI deployment, including AI-powered surveillance and automated decision-making in immigration enforcement. The Kavli Institute fellowship for minority-serving institution faculty targets a structural gap in theoretical physics: faculty at teaching-heavy schools rarely access the research networks available to colleagues at doctoral institutions. In 2025 Simons personally pledged a USD 1 million challenge grant as board chair of the Marshall Project, extending her giving pattern into direct personal commitments alongside foundation grantmaking.
Simons is also among the largest individual political donors in the country, with federal election records showing more than USD 25 million given to Democratic campaigns and committees since 2015, including roughly USD 10 million in the 2024 cycle. Her 2025 giving included the largest single donation to a super PAC backing New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and USD 750,000 across four payments to Jay Jones' campaign for Virginia attorney general, made before violent text messages Jones had sent became public in October 2025.
Questions
Does the scale of foundation-based philanthropy -- distributing USD 150-175 million annually -- adequately offset the wealth concentration that private foundations inherently represent? The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, meaning its priorities reflect the founders' choices rather than broader public deliberation.
How should a philanthropic record be assessed when it spans such diverse domains? The Heising-Simons Foundation works simultaneously in astronomy, early childhood education, immigration law, journalism, and AI ethics -- areas with few natural connections, reflecting personal values rather than a concentrated theory of change.
Does USD 25 million-plus in personal political giving since 2015 represent legitimate civic participation, given the donations are fully disclosed through FEC-regulated channels, or does the scale itself concentrate outsized influence over which candidates and causes can compete? The same wealth that funds philanthropic programs also funds a single donor's ability to become the largest individual backer of a state attorney general campaign.
Redemption Arc
The foundation's scope has expanded toward structural interventions over time. Earlier science grantmaking focused on funding research posts; newer programs like the KITP fellowship for minority-serving institutions and the AI coalition address systemic barriers. Annual distributions have grown from approximately USD 115 million in 2019 to USD 171 million in 2024, maintaining a giving rate well above the legally required minimum.