Medallion Foundation

Medallion Foundation

Charles W. Tate established the Medallion Foundation in 1984 in Houston, Texas. Tate's wealth originates from his role as a founding partner of Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, the Dallas-based private equity firm that reshaped the leveraged-buyout landscape during the 1990s through large-cap media, consumer, and energy deals. The foundation remains a family-directed entity, with Tate's wife Judy Tate and daughter Elizabeth C. Tate serving alongside him as directors. The foundation operates as a standard grant-making private foundation rather than a direct-investing entity. Its 990-PF filings show a portfolio concentrated in publicly traded securities held through a Stifel brokerage account, supplemented by direct ownership of three Texas commercial real estate properties — Shadow Creek Center and Silverlake Plaza in Pearland, and Riverstone Plaza in Sugar Land. Grant disbursements target education, health organizations, and children and youth services, with a geographic emphasis on Texas, Virginia, and New York. The foundation does not publicize a website or investment strategy statement, making its allocation approach a matter of public tax filings rather than disclosed policy. As of recent tax filings, the Medallion Foundation reported total assets of approximately $149 million. The board consists of the three Tate family members, reflecting a tightly held governance structure common to single-family foundations. No dedicated investment staff or external manager relationships are publicly disclosed. The Medallion Foundation's distinctiveness lies in its quiet, family-only governance and its origin in one of the most aggressive private equity franchises of its era — then being deployed conservatively as a traditional grant-making vehicle. Unlike many PE fortunes that flowed into endowment-style foundations with professionalized investment offices, the Tate family opted for a lean structure that mirrors a simpler, earlier model of family philanthropy, overseen entirely by the wealth creator and his immediate family without institutional intermediation.