AJ Tiarsmith
6 min read
Quick Read
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Milton Hershey’s 1918 secret gift of $60M in HSY stock now anchors a trust holding $23.6B that controls roughly 80% of Hershey’s voting power.
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That trust twice blocked Mondelez (MDLZ) takeover bids, proving a well-drafted governing document can protect a founder’s intent for over a century.
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Setting up a modern private foundation costs between $5,000 and $25,000 upfront and requires 5% annual distributions, and most advisors want between $3 million and $5 million in assets before recommending one.
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Just released. Our analysts combed the entire stock market and named the ten best stocks to buy right now, and Hershey Company didn’t make the cut. Enter your email to see the names that beat HSY. The report is free. Enter your email and see if any of your stocks made the cut.
In 1918, a childless candy maker quietly moved a large block of company stock into a trust for orphans. He told almost no one.
According to Philanthropy Roundtable, Milton Hershey placed about $60 million of Hershey (NYSE:HSY) stock into the trust in November 1918. For scale, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) sold for $25 million that same year. The foundation went back further. Hershey Trust Company was chartered on April 28, 1905, and in 1909 Milton and Catherine Hershey signed a deed of trust for what was then the Hershey Industrial School. Today it is the Milton Hershey School.
A Century-Old Trust Still Controls a Snack Giant
The Milton Hershey School and School Trust’s Form 990 for the fiscal year ending July 2025 shows total assets of about $23.6 billion and net assets of about $23.3 billion. That total covers far more than Hershey stock, and it changes from year to year. Total assets stood at $23.4 billion in July 2024 and $24.2 billion in July 2023.
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The trust owns almost all of the Class B stock of Hershey. Bloomberg reported on December 11, 2024 that those shares carried roughly 80% of the company’s voting power. Hershey’s proxy calls the trust company, acting as trustee, the controlling shareholder. As of March 6, 2026, it held 54,612,012 Class B shares, and each one can be converted into a share of common stock. The trust turned away a takeover approach from Mondelez International (NASDAQ:MDLZ) in 2024 and blocked another in 2016.
