Phil and Penny Knight on Monday pledged to contribute $400 million to the newly formed 1803 Fund, a local effort intended to strengthen Portland’s Black community.

The 1803 Fund “will combine elements of private investing and philanthropy to create a fund focused on helping people thrive and communities prosper.” The fund’s first project — dubbed “Rebuild Albina” — will invest in “education, place and culture and belonging in the Albina neighborhood.

The investment pairs two powerhouses in Knight, the billionaire co-founder of Nike, and Rukaiyah Adams, the high-profile Portland financial expert and community leader. Adams chairs the 1803 Fund, which will oversee the Rebuild Albina project.

The idea for a large, ambitious philanthropic effort to assist the Black community originated with Tony Hopson, chief executive officer of Self Enhancement Inc., and Ron Herndon, founder of the Portland chapter of the Black United Front and CEO of Albina Head Start.

Both have long relationships with Knight, who has for years been an important donor to SEI and Herndon’s nonprofits.

The Black Lives Matter demonstrations convinced Hopson that a new, more ambitious community effort was needed to address the issues plaguing the Black community. He and Herndon went back to Knight.

But this time, they were asking for a much larger sum of money to address bigger, more complex issues.

“It was a big ask,” Knight said.

The now-retired Knight said he was sold on the idea when Adams agreed to head the new organization.

“She’s a superstar,” he said.

Adams, formerly a top investment official at Meyer Memorial Trust and chair of the Oregon Investment Council, also serves on the board of the Albina Vision Trust, which has advanced a proposal to rebuild the historically Black neighborhood of Lower Albina.

The neighborhood was shaped by racist real estate policies that excluded Black Portlanders from living in many other neighborhoods — North Williams Avenue became known as Portland’s “Black Broadway” — and, later, “urban renewal” efforts that demolished swaths of the neighborhood for the construction of Interstate 5, the Rose Quarter and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

Knight said Portland’s east side has produced significant memories and seminal moments in his own life, including all-comer track meets at the Jefferson High School track. The fabled handshake between Knight and his collegiate coach Bill Bowerman that was the beginning of Nike took place near Memorial Coliseum in the Lower Albina area.

“Penny and I have long believed in the community of Portland,” Knight said.

“This investment is unparalleled, and has the potential to significantly change the culture and landscape of Portland,” Adams said. “A place-based effort of this magnitude is unique and has never been done before in Portland — let alone the United States.”

Hopson and Herndon will serve on the 1803 Fund board of directors, as will Nike Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe and Larry Miller, chairman of Nike’s Michael Jordan Brand.

The event was staged in a studio in Nike’s Tiger Woods building. The company is not contributing to the 1803 Fund.

The fund is named for the year Lewis and Clark began their historic trek across the North American continent. A man enslaved by Clark, known only as York, went along on the promise he would be freed afterward. York survived the expedition, Adams recounted, but he never got his freedom.

Adams offered few specifics about the fund or the initial project.

“The combination of Phil and Penny’s $400 million investment and the longtime experience of the board as community and business leaders and activists for social change will make this work powerful and long-lasting,” Adams said.

“Black people have always been central to Portland’s economic success, but have rarely had access to the benefits and advantages that enable wealth creation and collective wellbeing,” Herndon said in a statement. “The Rebuild Albina project hopes to change that trajectory.”

Knight said Lower Albina was also the focus of an agreement with Herndon and Tony to build the Nike Community Store on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which invests a share of the profits back into the community. The store, however, has been closed for months because of theft, according to the company.

The Nike officials attending Monday’s conference declined to address the fate of the store.

— Jeff Manning; jmanning@oregonian.com