Billionaire's space trip brought $125M to St. Jude hospital

The charitable sector should hope that billionaire Jared Isaacman keeps seeking new adventures.

Isaacman, who turned a payments-processing firm he started as a teenager into a multibillion-dollar company, periodically indulges his passion for aviation with head-turning flights. Each time, a prominent charity has joined the ride — and the stakes keep getting bigger.

In 2009, Isaacman set a speed record for flying around the world in a light aircraft, raising tens of thousands of dollars for Make-a-Wish in the process.

Last September, he took both his flying and his philanthropy to a much higher level. Isaacman led the first all-civilian trip to space, accompanied by a physician assistant, a community-college professor, and a data engineer. Isaacman paid for and commanded the SpaceX flight, known as Inspiration4, and he vowed to donate even more than the cost of the flight to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Isaacman and his wife, Monica, personally donated $125 million to the hospital, and contributions by SpaceX founder Elon Musk ($55 million) and many others ultimately raised the total given to St. Jude to more than $243 million.

“You’re not fulfilling your purpose in life if you’re not maximizing the various opportunities that come your way,” Isaacman says. “But it would be selfish to do that if you were not also trying to make the world a better place.”

The Isaacmans’ giving earned them the No. 20 spot on the Philanthropy 50, the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s 22nd annual ranking of America’s biggest donors.

The payments-processing business Isaacman started in his parents’ basement had 100 employees when he was just 19. That same company, now known as Shift4, made him a billionaire when it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2020. Isaacman also...