David Tepper just added “Time 100 philanthropist” to his already crowded business card. The billionaire owner of the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC has been named to Time’s 2026 TIME100 Philanthropy list after a year of unusually large giving that sent money flowing into universities, food banks and school athletics across the Carolinas.
Time included Tepper on its second annual TIME100 Philanthropy list, with his profile slated for the magazine’s May 25 issue, according to Charlotte FC. The club’s release notes that charity trackers tallied his donations and placed Tepper among the biggest givers last year.
An independent tally compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy put Tepper’s 2025 giving at roughly $529.8 million, ranking him among the nation’s top donors, as reported by the Rochester Business Journal. That figure covers gifts across multiple foundations and donor-advised funds he controls.
Local Dollars, Local Impact
A lot of that money has stayed close to home. In March, the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation gave $250,000 to UNC Charlotte’s "Let Me Play" initiative to support women’s student-athletes, university officials said, according to Inside UNC Charlotte. Earlier, the foundation made a $5 million gift that led to the naming of the David and Nicole Tepper Department of Sport and Entertainment Management at the University of South Carolina, per the University of South Carolina.
A Push for Girls' Sports
Days after the North Carolina high-school board voted to sanction girls’ flag football, the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation committed $1 million in grants to support programs across North and South Carolina, the Panthers said. "This is more than the introduction of a new sport - it’s a legacy change that will open doors for generations of young women to compete, grow, and thrive," David and Nicole Tepper said in a statement, per the team’s release, which also noted the foundation has been funding expansion efforts since 2022.
Security, Disaster Relief and a National Footprint
The foundation’s giving has also included national security and emergency grants. The Tepper Foundation launched a Security Fund in late 2023 to help underwrite protections at colleges, synagogues and other Jewish institutions and quickly deployed emergency grants to multiple partners, reporting shows. eJewishPhilanthropy documented the fund and early allocations, while analyses in outlets such as The Chronicle of Philanthropy note the foundation’s broader work on food aid, disaster relief and campus programs.
Why Charlotte Is Watching
Tepper’s philanthropic profile lands in a city where his sports and development plans already touch Uptown. Tepper Sports & Entertainment has opened ticket operations downtown and remains central to Bank of America Stadium renovation conversations that could reshape nearby blocks and public funding debates. Local coverage of those projects gives context to why gifts from his foundations tend to draw close attention in Charlotte. stadium conversations have been a recurring focus of Tepper-linked reporting affecting Uptown.
Time’s philanthropy list places Tepper alongside national figures and formalizes attention on where his money lands, from campus programs and food banks to girls’ athletics and security work. The full TIME100 Philanthropy list was announced by Time this month and appears in the magazine’s May 25 issue, per a Time release distribution, PR Newswire.
