Andre Agassi Foundation for Education

Andre Agassi Foundation for Education

The Andre Agassi Foundation for Education launched in 1994, the year Agassi won his first U.S. Open, marking a pivot from individual athletic achievement to systemic philanthropy. Agassi, a Las Vegas native, structured the foundation to improve public education for at-risk youth, focusing initially on his hometown. The wealth originates from Agassi's tennis career, which generated roughly $30 million in prize money and hundreds of millions in endorsement contracts, primarily with Nike and Head. Agassi later credited his own educational experience at a Las Vegas Boys & Girls Club as formative. The foundation's investment model blends programmatic spending with an institutional multi-asset portfolio managed to sustain operations and capital projects. Public records and Altss research indicate allocations across private equity, hedge funds, and fund-of-funds vehicles, with a geographic tilt toward North America. The signature deployment vehicle is the Turner-Agassi Charter School Facilities Fund, a $750 million social-impact fund raised in partnerships with Canyon Capital Realty Advisors and Citibank, which finances charter school construction nationwide. Confirmed real assets include Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus in Las Vegas and a portfolio of charter school properties. Private equity and venture exposures remain undisclosed at the position level. The foundation operates leanly, with key operations run through Agassi Graf Holdings, the family office co-managed by CEO Steve Miller and Agassi's wife, tennis champion Steffi Graf. The couple has co-invested in real estate and lifestyle ventures, including the Agassi Graf lifestyle brand and a fractional jet ownership arrangement through NetJets. Adjacent vehicle Children for Tomorrow, founded by Graf in 1998, provides trauma-informed mental health services for children, operating under a separate legal structure but sharing the family's philanthropic bandwidth. As of 2023, Agassi and Graf maintain dual residences in Las Vegas and Palm Beach. The foundation's structural differentiator lies in its hybrid approach to educational philanthropy: it is neither a passive grantmaker nor a pure charter operator. Instead, it functions as a credit-enhanced real estate financing platform for charter schools while maintaining an endowment-style investment pool. This model, pioneered with Turner Impact Capital, allows school operators to access institutional-quality facilities without depleting operating budgets. Succession planning centers on the Agassi family office, with brother Phillip Agassi serving as a foundation trustee alongside professional managers drawn from real estate and finance.