Bill Gatton is the single largest donor in the history of the University of Kentucky. During his lifetime he gave several multi-million dollar gifts which resulted in the renaming of the Gatton College of Business and Economics and the Gatton Student Center. After his death, The Bill Gatton Foundation gave the single largest gift to the University of Kentucky when it committed $100 million dollars to the newly named Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment. Mr. Gatton’s additional gifts to the university supported a number of initiatives and scholarship funds. Read about $5 million scholarship grant and $100 gift.

The Bill Gatton Foundation helped fund the establishment of The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University. The Gatton Academy attracts some of the most gifted high school students in Kentucky who spend their junior and senior years of high school on the WKU campus and pursue college level classes and research opportunities. Mr. Gatton also helped fund an expansion of the Academy in 2015. Read article.

The Bill Gatton Foundation made a contribution to the Letcher County Public Schools to rebuild the libraries at Martha Jane Potter Elementary, West Whitesburg Elementary, and Whitesburg Middle School after they were destroyed by the 2022 flooding in Eastern Kentucky. Read article.

Mr. Gatton provided substantial funding to save Sacramento Elementary School located in Sacramento, Kentucky, from closure. The school was then renamed The Marie Gatton Phillips Elementary in honor of Mr. Gatton’s sister, who was a teacher.

The Bill Gatton Foundation made the single largest private donation to the Bristol, Tennessee, school system to fund major renovations to the Tennessee High School auditorium. The auditorium was named in honor of Frank Winston, Bill Gatton’s long-time friend and in-house attorney. Read article.