Steve Ballmer

After retiring from Microsoft, Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie created the Ballmer Group, a philanthropic fund designed to fund progressive-left identity politics groups. Ballmer states that his philanthropic spending is designed to create economic opportunities for Black people so that they can overcome alleged systemic racism in America. ⁴

In 2025, Steve and Connie Ballmer were listed in TIME100 Philanthropy’s Most Influential People as “Titans” for their wildfire relief. ⁵ However, the Ballmers’ wildfire relief efforts came under scrutiny leading to U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) asking the Department of Justice for an investigation. ⁶

Career

Steve Balmer grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics. While at Harvard, he befriended Bill Gates, which led to him becoming the 24^th employee at Microsoft. In 1998, Balmer become president of Microsoft, and in 2000, he became the CEO. In 2014, Balmer stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. ⁷

Three months after retiring from Microsoft, Steve Balmer purchased the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team from the Donald Sterling Family Trust for $2 billion. ⁷

In 2015, Steve and Connie Ballmer created the Ballmer Group. The Ballmer Group is a philanthropic fund that funds organizations that provide social services for left-wing racial advocacy and Black empowerment groups. ⁴

Philanthropy

Steve Ballmer, alongside his wife Connie, was described by Inside Philanthropy as among the 100 most powerful people in philanthropy¹ Steve Ballmer tends to fund local organizations. From the time Ballmer moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to August of 2021, he was reported to have given over $110 million to organizations in the Los Angeles area. ²

The Ballmer Group provides grants to left-of-center organizations that fund social services for African American communities by providing economic opportunity in response to alleged systemic racism. They claim the motivation for providing these grants is due alleged racial inequities at all levels as a result of all “public systems” being racist Ballmer also funds left-of-center organizations that advocate for ending alleged racism in public systems and establishing racial equity as defined by critical race theory and similar ideologies. ⁴

Some of the Ballmer Funds’ grantees include Alliance for Safety and Justice Action Fund, Color of Change, Equal Justice Initiative, PolicyLink, The Bail Project, and the Obama Foundation. ⁸

As of October 2024, the Ballmers had given away a little more than $500 million in 2024. ⁹

USAFacts

In 2016, Steve Ballmer created USAFacts, a nonprofit organization that researches the United States population and spending. USAFacts studies government spending data and reports on it in a way that models how companies listed on stock exchanges are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report their finances and activity. ¹⁰

In August 2025, after the firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer by President Donald Trump, USAFacts warned against the politicization of government data. The group rarely weighs in on political issues, but did so after President Trump accused McEntarfer of rigging a bad jobs report to make his administration look bad. USAFacts said it remained confident in BLS data, despite the revisions to the jobs reports. ¹¹

Rainier Climate Group

In August 2024, Connie Ballmer, Steve Ballmer, and their son Sam founded the Rainier Climate Group to support their climate change philanthropy. The group announced a goal of “net zero emissions globally by 2050 and even earlier in wealthy nations.” From 2022 to 2024, the Ballmers had donated just over $1 billion to climate change causes. ¹²

Fire Aid Controversy

In January 2025, the Ballmers gave $15 million towards Los Angeles wildfire relief. That same month, the Ballmers turned Intuit Dome, home court of the NBA’s L.A. Clippers, which Steve Ballmer owned, into a stage for Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Billie Eilish, and other celebrity musicians. This was part of a two-venue mega-concert, FireAid, which raised about $100 million for wildfire relief. The Ballmers then matched every dollar raised and donated it for wildfire relief. ¹³

In July 2025, journalists reported that money raised during FireAid had not gone to help victims of the wildfire after those victims complained that they did not receive any money from the relief effort. Instead, the money had been given to dozens of nonprofits connected to the Annenberg Foundation, which helped the Ballmers organize the FireAid concert. In February 2025, FireAid released the first $50 million which went to 120 nonprofit groups. Two other distributions of $25 million each were planned to be released to nonprofit groups. FireAid later admitted that direct payments to fire victims were never planned. ⁶

U.S. Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) asked the Department of Justice to investigate FireAid, alleging the group donated money to nonprofits which had nothing to do with fire relief. Kiley later claimed that FireAid pledged to be more transparent with how it spent the money. Critics of FireAid alleged that donors were deceived into donating because they believed that their money was going to fire victims, not to nonprofits with which may not agree. ⁶

Political Donations

Steve Ballmer has historically given to both Republican and Democratic candidates but has spent vastly more money on left-of-center campaigns. In 2020, Ballmer gave $3 million to Yes on Prop 25, a left-of-center ballot measure committee that advocated for defunding law enforcement and reducing the number of people who are incarcerated during pre-trial. In 2018, he gave $600,000 to Safe Schools Safe Communities, a campaign group for gun control in Washington state. He gave $500,000 to Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility, another gun control group, during both the 2014 and 2016 election cycle. ¹⁴

Other Political Advocacy

In April 2025, Steve Ballmer sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon opposing cuts to education research. Without passing the judgment on any administration’s education policy, Ballmer expressed concern that cuts at the Department of Education would negatively impact the data needed to measure education policy. ¹⁵