In the text of this book, I have often drawn on the track record of many of the time-limited foundations listed below and believe that it would be useful to you, the readers, to have available a fuller description of what these foundations are doing or have done. Half of them have completed their spend-down process and half continue to be in the midst of that process. Many of the points I make about the character of the initiatives that time-limited foundations support during the years after they resolved to spend down will be clearer to you, I think, if you have available a fuller picture of their aims, activities, and achievements.
In order to be sure that this book would accurately portray what the foundations themselves regard as their most important initiatives during their spend-down, I asked representatives of most of them to furnish an account in their own words. My editor and I have slightly edited the following entries but have not substantively altered the information provided by the authors in any significant ways. Consequently, the style and format of the following descriptions vary considerably. We chose not to impose any uniformity on them, preferring instead to let each institution represent itself in its own way. As the later chapters of this book reflect my views of how these foundations handled, or are going about, their spending down, I wanted to ensure that the foundations involved would be provided a place in the book where they could speak for themselves. That is the reason for this appendix.
Foundation established: 1955
Spend-down year: 1996
Year spend-down decision made: 1987
Rationale: Foundation was designed to spend down within 10 years of Aaron Diamond’s death. Aaron Diamond died in 1984, and in 1994 Irene Diamond established the Irene Diamond Fund.2
Mission: To support medical research programs; specifically, AIDS research (Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center)
Programmatic focus: Medical research (40% of activities), minority education (40% of activities), and cultural institutions (20% of activities), primarily in New York City
Grant allocation: Total of $200 million for spend-down over a decade; $50 million earmarked for AIDS research, including support for Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center; $30 million for overall school improvement; and $2 million to start new schools3
Impact: In the area of medical research, according to Philanthropy News Digest, the “Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center… pioneered the use of combination drug therapy to control the disease—a development that has helped reduce the death rate of HIV in America and Western Europe to one-fifth of what it was in the late ’80s and 1990s.”4
Former Executive Director Vincent McGee reports: “Though we initially set out to keep the foundation’s AIDS work focused on medical research… we quickly became aware of the problem of AIDS in other settings—for example, children having parents with AIDS or being infected themselves, and how people living with HIV/AIDS were discriminated against at school and in the community. We discovered the importance of educating young people and teachers about AIDS, as well as the absence of AIDS in health education curricula. As a result, we quickly moved AIDS as a focus into our education and, later, human rights work. When people began to recognize our work as being ahead of the curve, particularly when we started a program for AIDS education and condom availability in the public schools, Mrs. Diamond would say, ‘I’m a grandmother. We ought to be talking about this candidly. This is a disease that can be avoided, but people have to know how it’s transmitted, and they have to change their behavior based on the facts.’ The Aaron Diamond Foundation was seen as a model because there was a consistency and integrity across the spectrum of our program activities.”5
Some of the foundation’s “board members wanted to focus on increasing minority enrollment in prep schools and elite institutions of higher education. That was not Mrs. Diamond’s interest.… [but, in time, the foundation] pioneered many of the things that are now known as the New Visions Schools, into which the Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and others are putting hundreds of millions of dollars around the country—breaking up big schools and creating smaller, themed schools where young people connect to a specific focus and get more attention. To make that work, [the foundation] also helped start minority recruitment programs for principals and teachers and collaborated with Agnes Gund’s Studio in a School and others to bring the arts, which had been eliminated from most public schools during the city’s fiscal crisis in the mid-70s, back into the curriculum. Toward the end of the foundation, [it] also funded a survey of arts education in the city that laid the groundwork for a special Annenberg Foundation grant which prompted city funding for a restructuring of the arts curriculum in the schools.
In the area of arts and culture, [the foundation] developed a focus on performing arts as a career vehicle for young people in music and dance, with film as a smaller area of interest. Because of Mrs. Diamond’s long-standing interest in free speech, personal liberties and human rights, [the foundation] also developed programs in those areas. Mrs. Diamond also made large personal grants outside the foundation to expand the minority presence at Julliard and gave $30 million over fifteen years to Human Rights Watch.”6
Beldon’s overarching legacy is that of a bold funder that planted “seeds” that are still bearing fruit today. Another way of conceptualizing this overall legacy is that they were an “early adopter,” advocate, and catalyst of many strategies and tools that today are seen as best practices in the fields of civic engagement, advocacy, and environmental health.
Beldon’s living legacy and influence can be seen in the strong 501(c)(3) [collaborative nonprofit organization recipients] tables in many states across the country. It can also be seen in the continued work and progress of the environmental health community, a field that Beldon helped bring to life. These are just two highlights of the following list of 11 legacies of the Beldon Fund. Collectively, these are areas where, five years later, the Beldon Fund has had a continuing impact and Beldon’s investments are either still flourishing or have evolved in a relevant manner.
1. Beldon’s efforts to marry policy, organizing, advocacy, and nonpartisan civic engagement work in the environmental community are widely perceived to have been successful; the melding of policy advocacy with civic engagement remains particularly relevant today.
2. As a national funder, Beldon helped pioneer an approach of investing heavily in state-based work, a practice that has become more common today.
3. Beldon prioritized collaboration and the need for strong collaborative infrastructures; in many states, these collaborative efforts remain robust, although they have evolved in different ways both within and beyond the environmental community.
4. Beldon encouraged the use of tools, technology, metrics, and evaluation in ways that were new to many grantees at the time but now represent a best practice in the nonpartisan civic engagement field.
5. Beldon helped shape the field of environmental health, leading to significant shifts in public awareness, corporate behavior, and governmental policies.
6. The infrastructure connecting environmental health advocates remains strong, despite Beldon’s exit and the absence of increased funding.
7. Health professionals and health-affected organizations continue to bring powerful voices to a range of environmental campaigns, building on work that was seeded by Beldon more than a decade ago.
8. Beldon’s influence on philanthropy continues today and can be seen in the culture, strategies, and collaborations among funders, particularly environmental grantmakers.
9. Beldon’s funding and leadership support significantly strengthened League of Conservation Voters Education Fund’s affiliates in Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, helping increase the capacity of the environmental movement in those states in a manner that remains impactful today.
10. By creating a roadmap for spend-out foundations, Beldon’s work has informed and advanced the field for a growing number of donors.
11. Core Beldon staff (and others in the “Beldon family”) represent a living Beldon legacy, as they continue to champion many of Beldon’s theories of change, and they remain active leaders in the field of environmental philanthropy.
Foundation established: 1917
Spend-down year: 1948
Year spend-down decision made: 1927
Rationale: In Rosenwald’s view, as discussed at length in the text of this book, “Permanent endowment tends to lessen the amount available for immediate needs; and our immediate needs are too plain and too urgent to allow us to do the work of future generations.”9
Mission: “For the well-being of mankind.”10
Programmatic focus: Education, health, African Americans (education and health)
Grantmaking allocation: In total, the fund donated over $70 million to colleges and universities, Jewish charities, and African American schools.
Impact: The fund donated large grants for the construction of “Rosenwald Schools” in poor, majority African American school districts in 15 southern states. In addition, Rosenwald donated “over two million dollars to Black University Centers at Tuskegee, Howard, Fisk, Atlanta and Dillard Universities. The Rosenwald Foundation gave approximately 1,000 scholarships or fellowships to African American students.”11
According to Karl Zinsmeister of the Philanthropy Roundtable, “America would be a very different, and lesser, nation absent this philanthropic inspiration (which outflanked a scandalous dereliction of duty by a variety of governments).”12
Foundation established: 1953
Spend-down year: 2005
Year spend-down decision made: 1993
Rationale: As discussed in the text, Olin was influenced by Julius Rosenwald’s opposition to establishing foundations in perpetuity. Olin’s decision to limit the life of his foundation appears to have been catalyzed by Henry Ford II’s resignation from the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees.
Mission: “The general purpose of the John M. Olin Foundation is to provide support for projects that reflect, or are intended to strengthen, the economic, political, and cultural institutions upon which the American heritage of constitutional government and private enterprise is based. The foundation also seeks to promote a general understanding of these institutions by encouraging the thoughtful study of the connections between economic and political freedoms, and the cultural heritage that sustains them.”14
Programmatic focus: Free enterprise, individual liberty
Grantmaking overview: The foundation disbursed over $400 million in grants to conservative think tanks, universities, publications, and other organizations.15
Impact: As discussed in Chapter 5, the activities of the Olin Foundation led to the founding of the Federalist Society, which “would go on to transform legal education and shape the federal judiciary.… The foundation also supported pioneering researchers, journalists, and public intellectuals in producing influential new arguments and books. These included Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind, Linda Chavez’s Out of the Barrio, Dinesh D’Souza’s Illiberal Education, Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History?, Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations, Richard John Neuhaus’s The Naked Public Square, and Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism.… Organizations that relied on Olin support as they grew into important roles in American intellectual life and public policy debates included the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Individual Rights, the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, the Manhattan Institute, the National Association of Scholars, the New Criterion, Philanthropy Roundtable, and many others. Olin research funding was crucial in launching new analyses that ended up driving consequential national reform movements in areas like school choice, welfare reform, and colorblind public policy.”16
Foundation established: 1975
Spend-down year: 2006
Year spend-down decision made: 1991/1992
Rationale: The foundation made the decision to spend down its funds in order to further the field of biomedical engineering. “Whitaker did not mandate a limited life for his foundation, but he did state in the trust document that ‘settlor desires, but does not require, that the entire principal and income of [the] trust be completely distributed within 40 years following his death.’”18
Mission: To legitimate/strengthen/advance the field of biomedical engineering
Programmatic focus: Biomedical engineering research and education (Whitaker Foundation); training for classical musicians (Helen F. Whitaker Fund)
Grantmaking overview: “The foundation contributed more than $700 million to universities and medical schools to support faculty research, graduate students, program development, and construction of facilities. Most of its efforts were directed toward the establishment and enhancement of formal educational programs and the support of especially talented students and faculty.”19
Impact: “Some 80 universities, among them some of the most prominent universities in the country, now have biomedical engineering programs, and it is generally recognized in the biomedical engineering community that the foundation was the catalyst in the rapid expansion of such programs over the past decade. This in turn was possible only because the foundation’s committee was prepared to utilize both income and principal to advance its mission.”20
Foundation established: 1986
Spend-down year: 2016
Year spend-down decision made: 2001
Rationale: A June 2011 letter explains the foundation’s reasoning: “The decision gradually to divest all of ACBP’s resources was made by Charles and Andy after robust family conversations. It became clear that their philanthropic interests were an expression of their own particular values, experiences, and interests, and therefore that ACBP should phase out its grant-making as they began to anticipate entering a less engaged chapter in their own lives. Tragically, Andy [died] in 2006.… At the heart of the family decision is the desire that each generation should be at liberty to engage philanthropically in support of their individual commitments and passions in their own ways.… Charles did not want to be the cold fist trying to rule from the grave.…
“In 2001, Andy and Charles, along with Jeff [Solomon, president and CEO of the foundation], chose 2016 as the date by which ACBP would accomplish the goal of ensuring that the missions of the organizations that ACBP has incubated would continue.… After 2016, our involvement will change.… We will still be active donors but without the infrastructure and support built over the years.
“To align with our values, we have taken the following steps in preparation for 2016:
1. We have been transparent with our grantees about the grant support that would be available to them between now and then;
2. We have continued to nurture these organizations, providing advice and back office assistance on a regular basis;
3. We play fluid and varied roles as these organizations grow and mature. From governance to advocacy, development to technical assistance, we attempt to help with a light touch… to champion and cheerlead, only occasionally offering “tough love.”…
4. We have retained an outside firm, Cambridge Leadership Associates (CLA), and other outside advisors to work with us, with the grantees, and with their constituencies, to
a. maximize the potential that the missions of these incubated organizations will be preserved going forward;
b. ensure as much as possible that the organizations themselves, if they are to continue, will be sustainable and best in class, and;
c. make certain that the people involved will be treated with sensitivity and concern throughout this transition.
5. Future letters and brief papers will discuss the roles played and the lessons learned as we chronicle the sunset process.”22
Mission: “[ACBP is] a family of charitable foundations operating in Canada, Israel, and the United States. [They] seek to nourish the deep and fundamental human desire to belong to a community and to help individuals forge connections between their identity and community.”23
Programmatic focus: To strengthen the unity of the Jewish people, to improve the quality of life in Israel, and to promote Canadian heritage24
Grantmaking overview: The foundation funded operating programs and made as major grants.
Grant allocation: As of June 2011, ACBP reported that it had “granted more than $325,000,000 to some 1,700 organizations. While believing dearly in good citizenship and relationship grants, we are proud that our strategic giving has generally been at 65 percent or above of all grantmaking. Much of the operating support of nearly $59,000,000 went to the day-to-day work of incubating and developing the organizations/programs at the heart of the Philanthropies’ mission.”25
Here is a partial list of grants:
• Association of Israel’s Decorative Arts (AIDA): $921,852 from 7/22/2003 to 1/1/2015
• Museum of Arts and Design: $955,900 from 4/24/1992 to 1/1/2017
• Musicians on Call: $160,750 from 3/21/2001 to 1/1/2016
• The Israel Museum, Jerusalem: $15,013,423 from 5/22/1991 to 5/13/2023
• The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra: $10,000,000 from 3/23/1992 to 1/1/2019
• The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts: $850,750 from 1/4/1987 to 1/1/2016
• Brandeis University: $6,993,358 from 10/12/1990 to 1/1/2016
Impact: The foundation “has guided the creation of a dozen start-ups in three countries, most famously Birthright Israel, a program that has already exposed more than three hundred thousand young Jewish adults to life in Israel for ten days, all expenses paid; 21/64, a program that fosters an intergenerational approach to strategic philanthropy; and the Historica-Dominion Institute, the leading NGO focused on Canadian history and heritage. One of the more interesting experiments of the Foundation was designed by Charles’s late wife, Andrea, a few days after the tragedy of 9/11, and then enacted by Jeff. Rather than simply provide charitable money contributions to the families who lost loved ones, Andy and Jeff sought to find a way to help them heal. They arranged for every one of the arts, cultural, entertainment, and sports venues in the tri-state area to provide free tickets to those in grief. The hope was that a museum, a baseball game, or a circus would help a grieving child find a reason to smile. Andy and Jeff built the Gift of New York to execute this idea and opened it by Christmas 2001—and they closed it, as planned, on Easter Sunday 2003. Ten thousand people took advantage of the program.”26
Foundation established: 2000
Estimated spend-down year: 20 years after the death of the survivor of Bill Gates and Melinda Gates
Year spend-down decision made: 2000
Mission: To ensure more children and young people survive and thrive; to empower the poorest, especially women and girls, to transform their lives; to combat infectious diseases that particularly affect the poorest; and to inspire people to take action to change the world28
Programmatic focus: Education, world health, and population, as well as community giving in the Pacific Northwest
Grant allocation and impact (selected initiatives):
Global Health
Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). In 1988, wild poliovirus was endemic in 125 countries and about 350,000 people, primarily young children, were paralyzed by polio annually. That year, the world resolved to eradicate the disease. GPEI was formed as a public-private partnership led by national governments and spearheaded by the WHO, Rotary International, the CDC, and UNICEF. The foundation has committed more than US$1 billion to support GPEI’s efforts to eradicate polio. To date, polio has been 99 percent eliminated. India was certified polio free in 2014. There are now only three countries where transmission has never been stopped: Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The need to find innovative, market-based ways to cut vaccine costs led the foundation to provide the seed money to create Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. That initial seed grant was for $750 million; the foundation has granted about $2.5 billion to Gavi to date. The alliance has helped increase the capacity and competitiveness of manufacturers willing to produce vaccines for the developing world and to reduce prices. In just a two-year period (2010–2012), the cost of immunizing a child with pentavalent, pneumococcal, and rotavirus vaccines went down by 35 percent. Since its inception, Gavi has helped low-income countries reach an additional 440 million children with lifesaving vaccines, averting an estimated 6 million deaths.
MenAfriVac (Sub-Saharan Africa Meningitis Group A Vaccine). After the biggest meningitis epidemic ever recorded in Africa killed 25,000 people in 1996–1997, the continent’s health ministers were desperate for an alternative that was more effective and easier to administer than the existing vaccine. In 2001, the foundation committed a 10-year, $70 million grant to support PATH’s Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP), a partnership between PATH (an international NGO working in public health), the World Health Organization, African health ministries, and the Serum Institute of India. Since December 2010, at a cost of just 50 cents per dose, MenAfriVac has been rolled out across Sub-Saharan Africa’s meningitis belt: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria. More than 150 million people have received the vaccine. A hallmark in the history of vaccines, it is the first time a vaccine has been designed specifically for Africa.
Global Development
AfSIS (African Soil Information Service). By far the most ambitious and innovative soil-mapping effort ever undertaken in Africa, AfSIS was established with a $15.6 million Gates Foundation grant in 2008.
bKash (Financial Services in Bangladesh). In order to address Bangladesh’s low-income population without access to banks, the foundation funded ShoreBank International, Ltd. to support bKash, a financial services provider that allows Bangladeshis to store, transfer, and receive money safely via their mobile phones and to deposit/withdraw cash through a network of community-based agents. Just four years after being founded, bKash processes roughly 1.5 million transactions per day, which amounts to nearly $1 billion each month. It is a collaboration with the BRAC Bank Ltd. (a private commercial bank focused on reaching Bangladesh’s unbanked by facilitating small and medium enterprises) and a US company called Money in Motion.
Mobile money platforms similar to bKash are springing up in other developing countries, enabling more low-income customers to utilize the services and build financial futures for themselves and their families.
M-PESA. The Gates Foundation supported the accelerated expansion of Vodafone’s highly used M-PESA mobile money service (originally in Kenya) to reach more than two million of Tanzania’s poorest people.
London Summit on Family Planning and FP2020. In 2012, the foundation partnered with the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) to galvanize global political commitments to enable access to voluntary family-planning services for 120 million more women and girls by 2020. The summit raised $2.6 billion to support family-planning efforts. The priorities discussed at the summit are enacted through Family Planning 2020, an organization that helps women and girls gain access to contraceptives.
United States
Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS). The foundation’s signature scholarship program will enable roughly 18,000 high-achieving, low-income minority students to attend college through an advanced degree at full cost. GMS recipients have a college graduation rate of 90 percent. The program demonstrates that if the financial barriers to college for high-achieving, low-income minority students are removed, they can succeed and graduate from elite colleges and universities at the same rate as anyone else. (Note: This program is sunsetting; final GMS cohort will be selected in 2016.)
US Libraries. The foundation accomplished its earliest goal of getting computers with Internet access in nearly every public library in the United States. By 2003, after investing $240 million, 99 percent of US public libraries were Internet ready with trained staff on hand.
Pacific Northwest. The foundation has invested more than $1 billion in its home state of Washington to ensure a quality education for all children, reduce family homelessness, and support the most vulnerable families.
Foundation established: 1982
Spend-down year: 2019
Year spend-down decision made: 2001
Rationale: “In keeping with the Giving While Living philosophy of [its] founder, Charles ‘Chuck’ Feeney, [the foundation] believe[s] in making large investments to capitalize on significant opportunities to solve urgent problems now, so they are less likely to become larger, more entrenched and more expensive challenges later.”30
Mission: “To bring about lasting changes that will improve the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people”
Programmatic focus: Children & Youth, Aging, Population Health, Reconciliation & Human Rights, Higher Education, Biomedical Research, Philanthropy/Giving While Living
Selected grant/cluster (total spent since 2001) and impact (post-limited life decision):
US Health Reform ($190,944,304): Big, bold, substantial bet with long-term impact, affording millions of uninsured and underinsured people access to quality care
US Death Penalty Abolition ($59,117,516): Momentum building toward fixing a broken, discriminatory criminal justice system that disproportionally affects the poor and people of color. Well-timed strategic collaboration of funders and advocates resulting in Supreme Court decision outlawing juvenile death penalty. Seven states have abolished the adult death penalty, four others have declared moratoria, and death sentences, executions, and public support of death penalty are at lowest levels in over 20 years.
Elder Care & Dementia, US, Ireland, No. Ireland ($305,417,700): Helped catalyze changes in public narrative about role and contributions of older people, and engaged government to fund and implement national dementia policy and practice across Ireland
Public Health Transformation, Viet Nam ($286,591,316): Created academic and research infrastructure to establish the public health field, transform training of physicians and public health professionals, and provide essential services for millions of Vietnamese. Built or renovated over 900 health centers, dramatically reduced morbidity and mortality, and improved health outcomes.
UCSF Mission Bay Campus ($299,900,000): Transforming a derelict neighborhood into a thriving residential/commercial center organized around research and clinical care
Cornell NYC Tech ($350,000,000): Catalytic investment building to scale, leveraging massive investments by government and private sector. Creating new applied research and technology industry in New York City to rival Silicon Valley.
Foundation established: 1957
Spend-down year: 2020
Year spend-down decision made: 2009
Rationale: The foundation’s board of directors made the momentous decision to invest all of the assets by 2020 so that more could be invested in solutions over a shorter period of time. An internal process refocused the grantmaking on a small number of discrete lines of work, where increased funding for timely opportunities might lead to significant progress within the foundation’s time horizon.
Mission: The S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation invests in a vibrant, sustainable future through development of young people and management of natural resources. The majority of the foundation’s grants have been directed toward organizations in California, the Bechtel family’s home state.
Programmatic focus: Strategic work in education and the environment emphasizes systems change, field building, policy advocacy, and strengthening key grantees so that they can continue the work beyond the foundation’s sunset.
Grant allocation and impact (selected):
Education
Math in Common Initiative®. (Initiated 2013, projected to conclude in 2018.) The Common Core State Standards outline what a student should know and be able to do following the completion of each grade, and charge states that adopt these standards (42 and the District of Columbia have so far) with aligning curriculum to meet the standards. California’s adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) has the potential to transform student learning. A key component of the foundation’s five-year, $53 million initiative is ensuring that educators are working with the knowledge and resources to address these standards. As of this writing, the foundation is midway through the Math in Common Initiative®, which engages 10 school districts that collectively serve over 300,000 California students.
Next Generation Science Standards Early Implementation Initiative. (Initiated 2014, projected to conclude in 2018.) Similar to the Common Core State Standards, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) provide educators with an internationally benchmarked science education framework, developed by national organizations including the National Science Teachers Association. The California K–8 NGSS Early Implementation Initiative is a four-year demonstration project that supports NGSS implementation in 11 local education agencies, including eight school districts supported by the foundation. The initiative consists of leadership training for teachers and administrators, professional development in content and pedagogy, and support to develop and implement a K–8 districtwide NGSS plan. Participating districts also form a cross-district learning community.
Instructional Leadership Corps (ILC). (Initiated in 2014, projected to conclude in 2019.) The ILC Initiative facilitates successful implementation of both CCSS-M and NGSS by building the instructional leadership capacity of a select corps of strong California educators, who can then grow the capacity of local educators and administrators through professional learning experiences. These trainings reach up to 8,000 teachers and 900 school site-leaders. There will be a conference for the members of the leadership corps to share their results and to plan regional summer institutes. The proceedings will be videotaped and made available for those not able to attend the events. A longer-term goal of developing the ILC is to create regional professional development expertise that can add value long after the foundation’s sunset.
Environment
Conserving California’s Landscapes. (Initiated prior to 2008, projected to conclude in 2020.) The foundation’s Land Portfolio works to advance land management and conservation systems to ensure the long-term vitality of California’s land resources. The foundation’s conservation efforts were inspired by an interest in supporting sustainable populations of migratory waterfowl and providing outdoor recreation opportunities to California’s communities. The Partnership’s efforts have enhanced the management of over 100,000 acres for the benefit of migratory birds.
Advancing Water Management. (Initiated 2008, projected to conclude in 2020.) The foundation’s Water Portfolio works to ensure that the management of water in California is informed by research and good data, grounded in best practice, and enabled by sound policy so that California transitions to a sustainable water management system that meets the needs of people and nature over the intermediate and longer term.
Foundation water investments to date—totaling approximately $50 million—helped set the stage for important advances in water policy and management, including the 2014 historic groundwater management reform and a $7.5 billion water bond, a series of governance reforms for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, urban water efficiency improvements, and improvements to California’s flood management system. By continuing its water investments and capitalizing on the heightened awareness and commitment to act due to California’s drought, the foundation seeks to spur continued focus on high-impact water issues—such as fundamentally improving California’s water data systems—and to generate additional philanthropic support for water beyond 2020.
Support for Grantee Capacity and Resiliency
Along with program-specific outcomes, the foundation is committed to building the capacity, adaptability, and resiliency of its grantees so that they can carry on their important work long after the foundation’s sunset. The foundation supports grantees to enhance effectiveness and resiliency, including efforts to engage other funders, diversify and grow revenue, and reduce dependence on the foundation. The foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness team developed a Resiliency Guide—a checklist of factors and resources related to organizational resiliency—to help frame dialogue between foundation staff and grantees in developing goals and approaches to enhancing effectiveness and resiliency.
Recently Concluded Initiatives
Alzheimer’s Disease Research. (Initiated in 1998, concluding in 2016.) Starting in 1998, the foundation provided grants to promising early-career researchers studying Alzheimer’s disease. The foundation received advice from experts regarding the current gap in funding for research that occurs between the end of a doctoral program and the first government grant. Aiming to address that gap, the foundation’s portfolio of Alzheimer’s research grants grew to include 15 promising scientists across 7 research institutions and 5 states. These grants also supported Alzheimer’s disease-focused conferences, which promoted collaboration and innovative research. As of this writing, 10 supported researchers are running their own labs at prominent universities or interdisciplinary research centers.
Civic Learning. (Initiated in 2012, concluding in 2016.) Stemming from interest by the Founder, the foundation supported programs that encourage young people to engage in their communities and with local and state government. The grants funded research on best practices in civic education as well as a professional development program for teachers in elementary schools regarding civics lessons. The foundation also supported meetings of policy-makers and stakeholders regarding civic education as well as communication campaigns on relevant research findings.
Founder Grants
While the main focus of staff efforts is appropriately on achieving defined outcomes through strategic grantmaking, our Founder remains active and, from time to time, directs grants to take advantage of compelling opportunities to advance STEM in higher education settings and to excite young people about the possibilities of careers in engineering. Budgeting for the spend-down years included a substantial set-aside pool to allow for these special projects without the need to redirect funds from strategic program priorities.
Foundation established: 1984
Spend-down year: 2019
Year spend-down decision made: 2005
Rationale: Arthur Fried, the first chairman of AVI CHAI after founder Zalman Bernstein’s passing, quoted him as follows: “Those who knew me should spend the money in their lifetime. I do not know who is coming next. The history of philanthropy in America is that the vision of the founder often becomes corrupted in the years following his passing.”33
Mission: “Whereas AVI CHAI is committed to the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism, and the centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people, the objectives of AVI CHAI are simply stated:
• To encourage those of the Jewish faith towards greater commitment to Jewish observance and lifestyle by increasing their understanding, appreciation, and practice of Jewish traditions, customs, and laws.
• To encourage mutual understanding and sensitivity among Jews of different religious backgrounds and commitments to observance.”34
Programmatic focus: While the mission of the foundation is common across the three geographic areas in which AVI CHAI funds, the focus and programmatic agendas are different. In North America, the focus has been to nurture the core group of Jewish youth who have the values, motivation, and skills to lead the Jewish people intellectually, spiritually, communally, and politically in the 21st century. One-half of AVI CHAI’s grants budget is focused on its North American activities. AVI CHAI Israel seeks to engage Israeli Jews in the study and celebration of diverse expressions of Jewish tradition and culture and to develop Israeli Jews’ commitment to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Forty percent of AVI CHAI’s grants budget is focused on its Israeli activities. The central focus of AVI CHAI’s work in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) has been the reseeding of Jewish life after the fall of the Soviet Union. Ten percent of AVI CHAI’s annual grants budget is directed to the Former Soviet Union.
Grant allocation and impact (selected projects):
North America
Curricular Programs: TaL AM35 and NETA/Bishvil Ha’Ivrit.36 AVI CHAI has funded two curricular and teacher training programs, one for the elementary grades and one for middle school/high school. The TaL AM curricular program is taught to over 30,000 elementary school students annually at 350 day schools in North America (and other countries outside Israel). The initial investments enabled TaL AM to expand its integrated Hebrew language and Jewish studies program through Grade 5. New AVI CHAI funding is helping the organization join forces with Compedia, a for-profit educational technology company, to develop an interactive digital version of the curriculum. The foundation hopes that the nonprofit organization formed through this joint venture will be a long-term, sustainable home for the project.
NETA/Bishvil Ha’Ivrit is a Hebrew-language curriculum and teacher training program used by 15,000 students in 110 middle and high schools. NETA has now become part of a thriving Israeli nonprofit organization, the Center for Educational Technology (CET), which has helped develop a digital version of NETA, called Bishvil Ha’Ivrit, and has agreed to take long-term responsibility for the project.
Building Loan Programs.37 AVI CHAI made available $150 million in interest-free loans for construction and renovation at day schools and summer camps, assisting in capital projects of nearly $1 billion. The capital projects enabled enrollment growth, increased the attractiveness of the facilities, and/or supported educational improvement. The program addressed a critical timing mismatch in capital campaigns: donors typically fulfill their capital pledges over a few years, but the contractor needs to be paid at the time of construction. To alleviate this timing challenge, AVI CHAI made loans of up to $1 million, repayable over five years (after an initial six-month grace period) and secured by a standby Letter of Credit issued by an acceptable commercial bank. AVI CHAI agreed to pay the annual Letter of Credit fee. After AVI CHAI ceased making loans because of its spend-down, the Maimonides Fund agreed to provide the funding needed to continue the program for summer camp construction and renovation.
Israel
The AVI CHAI Film and Television Project.38 In 1999, AVI CHAI established an in-house effort to promote quality treatment of Jewish life, history, and culture on Israeli television and cinema. Prior to this, Jewish content on the Israeli television screen was superficial, laden with stereotypes, or nonexistent. The Foundation helped develop over 300 hours of programming that have obtained impressive ratings and numerous awards, have become an effective educational tool in schools and cultural centers, and have inspired filmmakers to create what has now become legitimate content for film and television—the Jewish-Israeli story.
Pre-army Mechinot (Zionist Leadership Academies).39 Since 1997, AVI CHAI has supported the development of pre-army social leadership academies. As of 2015, 23 mechinot supported by AVI CHAI attract annually over 1,500 high school graduates to an intensive year-long residential program. These academies, each with its distinctive character, seek to engage participants in the significant study of Jewish and Zionist texts, to foster dialogue across diverse religious identities, and to nurture a commitment to Judaism, democracy, and civic responsibility. A disproportionate number of mechinot graduates continue on as officers in the Israel Defense Forces and can be found later in positions of social and civic leadership in Israeli society.
Tzohar.40 Tzohar began as a small group of rabbis interested in providing secular couples with an alternative to the impersonal weddings officiated by Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Over a period of 15 years, beginning in 1997, AVI CHAI’s support enabled this modest organization to grow into a powerful movement of 1,000 Zionist rabbis and female volunteers, which offers, among other things, training for rabbis to counter trends of religious extremism, religious services for the secular public, and a voice of rabbinic moderation in public discourse over issues and policies of religion and state.
Former Soviet Union (FSU)
Judaic and Academic Enhancement in Jewish Day Schools across the FSU. Over a period of 12 years, AVI CHAI’s efforts to enhance Jewish Day School education in the FSU included a two-pronged effort: strengthening the Jewish experiences of students attending Jewish Day Schools and, with an eye to bolstering registration, creating stronger academic departments in 30 Jewish day schools in 18 cities across the FSU. Supported programs included Jewishly themed after-school clubs and activities, expansion of Jewish and academic libraries, tutorials, preparations for interschool academic and Jewish Olympics, stipends to attract outstanding teachers, a curriculum-based study of the Hebrew language via an adapted version of the TaL AM and NETA programs for the FSU (currently used as the core Jewish studies curriculum by 28 schools with a combined total of over 2,000 students), and a Youth Leadership initiative for high school students in these schools. Support for these programs came in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Education/Jewish Agency for Israel, the Leviev Fund, the Mirilashvili Family, and local donors. With AVI CHAI’s sunset in the FSU, these programs continue with support from these partners.
Booknik.ru. Booknik.ru is the first Russian-language Internet portal focusing on Jewish and Israeli history, religion, society, and thought; Jewish arts and culture; and the Jewish spirit, with a section for children and families as well as a subsection that focused on bringing Booknik.ru’s articles and postings to Russia’s rapidly developing world of social networking.
By July 2015, Booknik’s traffic exceeded 825,000 viewers per month. In addition, the overall total number of participants in the social networking efforts surpassed 90,000, and Booknik’s biannual “Booknik-party” drew several thousand people to the center of Moscow to celebrate “Booknik and Jewish/Israeli Life and Culture.” Booknik is currently working on identifying new partners that can ensure the unique project’s continued growth in the years following AVI CHAI’s sunset.
Publication of Books on Jewish Themes in the Russian Language.41 Research showed that most treasures of Jewish/Israeli literature and thought were locked away for most Russian speakers even a decade after the fall of the Iron Curtain. To combat this, AVI CHAI launched a major publishing effort that to date has resulted in over 500,000 books in circulation in the fiction series, 130,500 in the nonfiction series, 180,000 illustrated books for children on Jewish themes, 25,000 in the Pearls of Yiddish Literature series, and 15,700 in the Hebrew and classical series. The foundation’s efforts were buttressed by the support of Jewish/Israeli Book Festivals across the FSU, aggressive marketing in bookstores and literary venues, and visits of Israeli and Jewish authors and an app called JKniga for mobile and handheld devices that digitized published books. In addition to AVI CHAI, these efforts are supported by local and international donors, with several local philanthropists providing significant gifts to name individual series in their families’ honor.
Foundation established: 1994
Spend-down year: 20 years after death of founder, Tim Gill
Rationale: To make largest impact possible during lifetime of founder
Mission: “To advance equality for LGBT Americans further, faster”43
Programmatic focus: LGBT advocacy
Grantmaking overview: The foundation’s grantmaking priorities are equal treatment and family recognition of LGBT individuals, safe schools for them, and a prosperous Colorado. As of 2013, grants represented 61 percent of the foundation’s money spent. The foundation’s total grants in 2013 were $11 million, with $3.4 million specifically for the state of Colorado. See Table A.1 below.
A.1 Gill Foundation 2013 Grant Allocation44
Initiative: National LGBT
Grant Amount: $2,822,828
% of total: 26%
Initiative: State LGBT
Grant Amount: $1,825,000
% of total: 17%
Initiative: National Allies
Grant Amount: $779,625
% of total: 7%
Initiative: Federal Agency Project
Grant Amount: $750,000
% of total: 7%
Initiative: Colorado LGBT & HIV
Grant Amount: $711,500
% of total: 6%
Initiative: Colorado Civic Engagement/Roundtable
Grant Amount: $649,600
% of total: 6%
Initiative: GF Communications Projects
Grant Amount: $636,500
% of total: 6%
Initiative: Colorado Communications Network
Grant Amount: $618,325
% of total: 6%
Initiative: Latino Initiative
Grant Amount: $565,000
% of total: 5%
Initiative: Colorado STEM Initiative
Grant Amount: $421,100
% of total: 4%
Initiative: School Culture Initiative
Grant Amount: $416,000
% of total: 4%
Initiative: African American Initiative
Grant Amount: $380,000
% of total: 3%
Initiative: Board Discretionary
Grant Amount: $190,000
% of total: 2%
Initiative: ED Programs & Oppty Fund
Grant Amount: $45,000
<1%
Initiative: National Donor Development
Grant Amount: $30,500
<1%
Initiative: Employee Matched
Grant Amount: $27,460
% of total: <1%
Initiative: ED Discretionary Grants
Grant Amount: $7,500
% of total: <1%
Initiative: TOTAL
Grant Amount: $11,000,938
Impact:
Equal Treatment
“In 32 states, LGBT people are not fully protected from discrimination. In 2013, Gill Foundation and [its] funding partners invested in a two-year research project to understand how the public thinks about policies that protect LGBT people from discrimination. This messaging initiative is impacting how advocates talk about these policies in public education campaigns across the country.” In addition, “18 states (plus DC) now have employment nondiscrimination laws that protect hardworking LGBT employees.”
Family Recognition
“For years, the Gill Foundation has supported strategic, high-impact litigation. And in 2013 that work led to a monumental win before the Supreme Court in Windsor v. United States. This decision laid the groundwork upon which future cases were built, creating nationwide momentum for the freedom to marry.”
Safe Schools
“In 2013, Gill Foundation grantee One Colorado Education Fund hosted a statewide training for educators with a special focus on transgender students, providing guidance on topics such as gender-segregated facilities, identity documentation, and working with families.”45
Prosperous Colorado
“Colorado kids spend less time on science than those in 45 other states. In 2013, [the foundation] funded organizations to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for all students. STEM competencies prepare students to be critical thinkers, to persevere through failure, to communicate and collaborate across real and perceived barriers, and to solve complex and ever-changing problems.”46
Foundation established: 1995
Spend-down year: 2020
Year spend-down decision made: 2008
Rationale: According to Paul Brainerd, president of the foundation: “Despite all that we have accomplished, the ecological challenges before us are as significant as humanity has ever faced. I believe we must each do whatever we can to protect the natural resources that sustain this planet because the need is nothing short of urgent. There are many ways to accomplish this, of course, and mine is to see that the foundation’s entire endowment is spent in my lifetime. After much thought, I have decided to spend-out the foundation’s assets over the next ten to twelve years and then pass the baton to a new generation of conservationists and philanthropists.”48
Mission: “To protect the environment of the Northwest and to build broad citizen support for conservation.”49
Programmatic focus: Conservation policy, place-based conservation, conservation capacity
Grantmaking overview: The foundation invests in nonprofit organizations in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Since 1995, the foundation has invested in more than 300 organizations; since 2007, the foundation has funded 38 organizations within its funding areas: conservation policy, place-based conservation, conservation capacity, a grassroots fund, and an opportunity fund.50
Grant allocation: 2014:
Conservation policy grants: $705,000
Place-based grants: $920,000
Conservation capacity grants: $893,000
Grassroots grants: $30,000
Opportunity fund grants: $76,500
Other funding: $76,000
TOTAL: $2,700,50051
Impact: “President Obama’s 2016 Budget recommends $17,930,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund for conservation in the High Divide of Montana and Idaho. This funding will support proposals developed by the High Divide Collaborative for conservation easements, property acquisition, habitat restoration, and protection of wildlife connectivity and cultural values. Brainerd Foundation grantees involved in this effort include the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, Salmon Valley Stewardship, Lemhi Regional Land Trust, Centennial Valley Association, Big Hole Watershed Committee, TNC/MT, Madison Valley Ranchlands Group, and Wildlife Conservation Society.
In December 2014, the North Fork Watershed Protection Act was approved by the Senate and sent to President Obama for his signature. The legislation designates 245,000 new acres of wilderness and shields 430,000 acres along the North Fork of the Flathead River near Glacier National Park in Montana from future mining and drilling. This legislation complements actions taken by the B[ritish] C[olumbia] government to protect lands in the Canadian portion of the Flathead River from energy development. Brainerd grantees supporting this legislation included Headwaters Montana, National Parks Conservation Association, and Trout Unlimited.
In December 2014, the Rocky Mountain Front Heritage Act passed Congress, adding 67,000 acres of new wilderness to the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, creating a 208,000-acre Conservation Management Area where current uses can continue and directing federal agencies to prioritize noxious weed management on the Front. The Brainerd Foundation supported the work of Montana Wilderness Association, National Parks Conservation Association, and The Wilderness Society in this effort.
In October 2014, a Montana district judge closed a Montana regulatory loophole that allowed developers to drill as many wells as they wanted to provide water to subdivisions, encouraging ill-planned developments and growth in rural areas. [This] decision will help keep development in check on landscapes that are valuable for wildlife habitat and connectivity. The Brainerd Foundation supported Western Environmental Law Center on this challenge to state water well permit rules.
In December 2014, the Yukon Supreme Court ruled in favor of First Nations and the conservation community, overturning a Yukon government decision that would have opened up the 17-million-acre Peel River Watershed to mining and resource development. The court decision reiterates the government’s responsibility to consult with First Nations on land management plans affecting aboriginal lands and rights. The Brainerd Foundation supported the work of CPAWS [Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society] and the Yukon Conservation Society in their strong endorsement of First Nations rights and conservation in the Peel Watershed.”52
Foundation established: 2006
After about two decades of significant individual giving, both personally and by pass-through gifts to other foundations, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and also after establishing a private foundation, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, as a freestanding 501(c)(3) foundation, Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided that, for the sake of future flexibility and convenience, he would establish one umbrella organization that would, to the extent permitted by US law, coordinate his philanthropic and public policy interests. That organization is now The Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Spend-down year: Unspecified as of 2016
Year spend-down decision made: Uncertain date, according to Mayor Bloomberg in my interview of him for this book
Mission: To ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people
Programmatic focus: Focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: public health, environment, education, government innovation, and the arts. These five areas encompass the issues about which Michael Bloomberg, three-term mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP, and his team are most passionate and where they believe they can achieve the greatest good.
Public-private partnerships were a hallmark of Bloomberg’s approach as mayor. Bloomberg Philanthropies takes a similar approach, bringing together people, ideas, and resources from across sectors toward a common purpose and amplifying their impact.
Grantmaking overview: In 2015, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $510 million. Michael Bloomberg’s lifetime giving is more than $4 billion.
Grant allocation and impact (selected):
Public Health
A primary focus of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ public health program is on noncommunicable diseases, like those caused by obesity, which receive minimal funding from governments and philanthropies around the world. Activities include:
• The Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, an unprecedented global campaign to save lives by protecting people from the devastating effects of tobacco. When Bloomberg Philanthropies began spreading these effective solutions in 2007, only 11 countries had passed comprehensive smoke-free tobacco control laws; today 50 countries have these types of laws in place.
• The Global Road Safety Program advocates for stronger road safety legislation in five countries. Bloomberg Philanthropies also works with ten cities to implement proven solutions to improve road safety like seat-belt and helmet wearing and road infrastructure, including promoting sustainable urban transport. The program supports crash testing for cars sold regionally in Latin America and Asia, which can provide evidence for advocates to demand better safety standards. Since 2010, nearly 1.95 billion people are covered by new or improved road safety laws in eight countries or localities.
• The Obesity Prevention Program has supported research and advocacy in Mexico to raise awareness of the country’s obesity epidemic and to implement policies and interventions like banning junk food advertising for children and raising taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (the first such national tax ever). Efforts include rigorous evaluations of the impact of these policies to better determine what works and spread the results to other jurisdictions. The program is preparing to replicate the Mexico model in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, and Turkey and is tracking and supporting efforts to tax sugar-sweetened beverages in the United States as well.
• The Maternal and Reproductive Health Program started as an initiative to reduce maternal deaths and injuries in Tanzania and later expanded to include reproductive health services, like expanding access to contraceptives and providing postabortion care. Between 2009 and 2015, 67,000 babies were delivered in upgraded maternal health centers in Tanzania. The program formed a partnership with the Gates Foundation to expand contraception to 120 million women around the world by 2020. In addition, the program invests in advocacy programs in four countries—Burkina Faso, Uganda, Nicaragua, and Senegal—to improve access to reproductive health services, including contraception and medical abortion.
• The Partnership to Eradicate Polio supports the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors through on-the-ground activities such as vaccination campaigns in high-risk countries.
Environment
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Environment program seeks to address some of the most serious threats to our environment, including:
• The Clean Energy Initiative aims to halve the amount of electricity generated by coal in America by supporting the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign and by working with states to develop and implement common-sense clean energy policies.
• As UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, Michael Bloomberg launched the Compact of Mayors, a common reporting platform to capture the collective impact of global cities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate risk through consistent, public reporting of their efforts—which, in turn, will continue to push nations to increase their carbon-cutting commitments. With the merger of the Compact and European Union’s Covenant of Mayors, the new Covenant of Mayors includes almost 7,000 cities. Bloomberg Philanthropies also supports the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a global network of mayors from the largest cities committed to tackling climate change.
• Vibrant Oceans aims to end overfishing worldwide by piloting efforts to reform both industrial and small-scale fishing practices in Brazil, Chile, and the Philippines, which together constitute approximately 7 percent of the global catch. The program also works to increase private capital for sustainable fishing by exploring and publicizing effective vehicles for investment.
Government Innovation
Solutions to many of the greatest challenges we face can be found in cities. Bloomberg Philanthropies works to support public sector innovation capacity and spread proven and promising solutions among cities worldwide. Major government innovation initiatives include:
• The Mayors Challenge competitions use prizes to encourage cities to develop bold and innovative solutions that have the potential to spread and be replicated by cities worldwide. As of 2016, there have been challenges in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, and the Caribbean.
• Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Teams (i-teams) are in-house consultants that work across city agencies and report directly to mayors on a priority issue. Using Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Innovation Delivery approach, the i-teams help agency leaders and staff go through a data-driven process to assess problems, generate responsive new interventions, develop partnerships, and deliver measurable results.
• What Works Cities helps city governments in midsized US cities. The program empowers leaders to use data to drive decision-making, supports implementation and enhancement of open data and performance management programs, and helps cities conduct real-time, low-cost evaluations of programs so they can continually improve services.
• The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is a joint program between Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government to provide 40 mayors and 60–80 key aides per year access to a robust leadership program, including a convening in New York and virtual learning over a 12-month period. The program will also generate the world’s largest open-source hub of new case studies and curriculum focused on innovative city leadership. It will also include a significant internship component for Harvard students to be placed in participating city halls.
Bloomberg Associates, a team of globally recognized experts who formerly served as commissioners and deputy mayors in the Bloomberg administration, has developed into a highly sought-after pro bono municipal consulting firm. The team focuses on developing deep relationships in a select number of cities across multiple disciplines, helping mayors around the world tackle some of the most complex and difficult challenges.
The Arts
Bloomberg Philanthropies promotes the critical economic and cultural role the arts play in helping cities flourish. Major arts initiatives include:
• The Arts Innovation and Management program provides management training developed specifically for small and midsized nonprofit arts organizations. Participating organizations are required to secure matching funds, reach 100 percent board participation in fundraising, and maintain up-to-date information in DataArts, an online financial management tool that assists arts organizations across the country to collect and use data effectively.
• Bloomberg Connects aims to expand public access to cultural institutions by funding the development of digital tools and other technology that enhance the visitor experience. There have been 15.7 million users of technologies developed through Bloomberg Connect since 2013.
• The Public Art Challenge helps US city leaders partner with artists to use public art as an effective tool to celebrate creativity, enhance urban identity, and catalyze economic development. The inaugural competition was held in 2015, and four winners were chosen out of 237 applicants.
Education
Bloomberg Philanthropies works to improve education in America with an innovative program to strengthen educational leadership, advance good public policies in communities across the United States, and help ensure that the best and brightest, whatever their economic backgrounds, make it to America’s top universities and colleges. Major education initiatives include:
• CollegePoint works to increase the number of high-achieving, low-to moderate-income students who enroll in the 265 most selective US colleges and universities. The program’s goal is to help as many as 65,000 students apply to, enroll in, and graduate from these schools. CollegePoint helps students by providing them with free virtual college advising (via the phone and online). The program also engages college and university presidents and leading experts to change higher education policies so that more high-achieving, low-to moderate-income students enroll and graduate from top schools.
• Bloomberg Philanthropies also makes strategic investments in targeted areas to elect, protect, and support education reform leaders so that those leaders can strengthen the US education system, improve student performance substantially, and reduce the achievement gap. All advocacy work is done with Mike Bloomberg’s personal money.
• The Career and Technical Education program works to fill the gap in vocational training in the United States by supporting promising programs that provide training for “middle-skill” jobs that require postsecondary training but not a college career. Support is currently in areas where the Education program is already active and include Denver; Colorado; New Orleans; Louisiana; Philadelphia; Pennsylvania; Washington, D.C.; Rhode Island; and New Jersey.
Founder’s Projects
Bloomberg Philanthropies funds projects that are of special interest to its founder, including:
• Support of Johns Hopkins University, his alma mater, which has surpassed $1 billion, and includes a gift to hire 50 interdisciplinary professors (“Bloomberg Distinguished Scholars”) to work across at least two departments at the institution; undergraduate merit-based scholarships; an endowment of the Charlotte R. Bloomberg Children’s Center, a globally renowned pediatric hospital; and funding for the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. In recognition of Bloomberg’s deep support of the university, the School of Public Health was named the “Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health” in his honor.
• Everytown for Gun Safety is a national organization cofounded by Michael Bloomberg with the goal of protecting Americans from gun violence. Everytown advocates for life-saving laws state by state, blocks dangerous bills pushed by the gun lobby at both the state and federal level, and conducts research on gun violence and safety.
• Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Economic Development in Africa program is helping women in Rwanda and Congo gain skills, like farming and hospitality, which enable them to support their families and be economically self-sufficient. Nearly 150,000 women have completed the program since it launched in 2007.
For the sake of balance and to represent a sampling of the many perpetual foundations and their achievements, I asked the heads of the following institutions to write short descriptions of one or more of the significant achievements of the foundations over which they preside. My editor and I have compressed some of them, but they are presented here in the authors’ own words. In some other cases, I have drawn on already existing short summaries of the foundations’ work, with appropriate crediting.
Founded in 1894 in Hawaii, the Castle Foundation is now the oldest family foundation in the United States. It continues to be animated by Mary Castle’s “dramatic vision for Hawaii, one of greater equity, social justice, and opportunity. ‘Her social change theory was the theory of early education,’ said Al Castle, the foundation’s executive director, noting the founder’s close association with Chicago progressives like John Dewey and George Herbert Mead, her son-in-law. ‘She asked: “How long will it take to get to the type of community that we want in Hawaii?” To get to that kind of community, every child had to have access to high quality kindergarten, to care, nutrition, to good family support, to safe and healthy community. It was at least a century-long project.’… Today, the family is still focusing on education.”55
The Grable Foundation, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1976 by Minnie K. Grable, the widow of Errett M. Grable, the founder and lifetime director of Rubbermaid, Inc., which grew to become an international housewares company. As longtime residents of Pittsburgh, the Grables were deeply concerned about the welfare of the Pittsburgh region and all its citizens; in particular, they were firmly committed to education and the important role it can play in helping children build productive, self-sustaining, and meaningful lives. Following the death of Mrs. Grable in 1990, the assets from her estate began to be distributed to the foundation, and the first professional staff members were hired in 1991. Today, the foundation’s eight-member board of trustees, most of whom are members of the Grable family, are guided by Minnie Grable’s desire to help young people lead fulfilling lives with hope for the future. The foundation retains an endowment of approximately $300 million and currently distributes nearly $13 million in grant awards each year, with a focus on its key areas of early education, improving K–12 school systems and out-of-school time, and building community vitality in the Pittsburgh region.
What began with just a handful of people and organizations has grown into a diverse network of more than 200 organizations, including more than 2,000 educators and professionals in schools, museums, libraries, afterschool programs, community centers, university research centers, educational technology companies, local philanthropies, and youth civic groups.
Recognizing the need to sustain momentum, leaders across the Pittsburgh region reaffirmed their commitment in 2014 and formed the Remake Learning Council. The Council brings together leading executives and learning scientists in business, higher education, public education, civic and cultural organizations, foundations, and government to support the greater Pittsburgh region’s efforts strategically so as to remake learning in all the places where children and youth learn.
The Remake Learning Network has established a solid ecosystem for learning innovation in the greater Pittsburgh region, attracting visitors from around the world to examine firsthand how a handful of people—with foundation guidance and funding—worked together to transform school districts and build effective partnerships between educators, cultural institutions, and research universities, all while providing children and youth with the best available opportunities to learn and be creative.
Created in 1956 by Charles H. Revson, founder of Revlon, the Revson Foundation focuses on four program areas: urban affairs, education, biomedical research, and Jewish life. With a current endowment of $160 million and annual spending of $8–10 million, the foundation remains dedicated to Mr. Revson’s self-professed “zeal to learn” and love of New York City.
In recent years, the trustees turned their attention to a philanthropic opportunity overlooked but in plain sight: New York City’s branch libraries. Over a century ago, Andrew Carnegie began construction of many local public libraries. There are now 207 branches, touching every city neighborhood, serving over 40 million visitors annually, more than all the city’s cultural institutions and sports arenas combined. Millions of New Yorkers rely on libraries for Internet access, job-search assistance, English-as-a-second-language classes, homework help, community and cultural programs, and a safe and horizon-expanding place to go after school. According to a 2010 analysis conducted by the Center for an Urban Future, a prominent local urban-affairs think tank, in the past decade the city’s branch libraries have seen a 27 percent increase in program offerings, a 40 percent increase in program attendance, and a 59 percent increase in circulation. They rank among the nation’s top 10 in each of these categories, despite diminishing budgets that left most branches open only four to five days a week. Unlike most major urban public libraries, which are under the auspices of city government, the New York, Brooklyn, and Queens public libraries operate as separate nonprofit organizations. And unlike other city services such as parks and education, the three systems had no organized constituency and no designated public official advocating for increased resources.
In 2008, the Revson Foundation set out to secure desperately needed capital funds for the branch libraries while addressing a high priority of the Bloomberg administration: the development of affordable housing in a land-starved city. A feasibility study commissioned by the foundation found 20–30 library branches in need of significant capital investment that were also suitable for redevelopment with a state-of-the-art library on the lower floor(s) and affordable housing above. At least 50 apartments could be developed on each site. Development under this mixed-use model would lower the costs of library construction by 40–50 percent.
Through a proposed partnership among the City of New York, the three library systems, and a collaborative group of foundations, “Living Libraries” was born. Ten library sites were selected for the pilot program, and lead philanthropic commitments were in hand from the Revson and Wallace Foundations. Unfortunately, the financial crisis of 2008 and the recession that followed decimated the foundation’s plans. With no sources of financing, extremely limited philanthropic support, and no government champion (the city housing commissioner left to work in the new Obama administration), all that remained of Living Libraries was a feasibility study showing that—someday, perhaps—the model could still work.
Despite the setback, the Revson trustees agreed that New York’s branch libraries were too important a community asset to abandon. Over the next seven years, the foundation pursued several strategies to build public awareness and support for libraries, including encouraging collaboration among the three library systems and providing ways for the patrons and staff of branch libraries to tell their stories. Thanks to the foundation’s 2015 “Tri-Library” “Invest in Libraries” campaign, the outpouring of activity by tens of thousands of New Yorkers reenergized the city council to fight vigorously for the libraries. By the end of the fiscal year 2016 budget process, six-day-a-week service was restored citywide, with some branches open seven days a week. And, for the first time, libraries were included in the city’s 10-year capital plan, with an allocation close to $400 million.
By 2015, New York’s economy had fully recovered, and Bill de Blasio, the recently elected mayor, had made affordable housing among his highest priorities—thus seeming to present a renewed opportunity for “Living Libraries.” After a period of exploration and due diligence, the Robin Hood Foundation offered to join Revson in a five-site pilot program, in which Robin Hood would raise $25 million to finance 30 percent of the library capital costs, if the city would finance the housing component and 30 percent of the library capital costs. The remaining financing would be derived from the value of the land and cost savings accrued from employing the “mixed-use” model.
Robin Hood worked closely with enthusiastic partners from all three library systems to identify at least 30 viable sites for the project, now renamed “New Stories.” It then approached city hall to negotiate the public share of the funding. After six months of negotiations, the city offered considerably less than requested, and Robin Hood was unwilling to double its funding commitment to make up the difference. The Revson Foundation was again compelled to rescind its grant, and the project returned to a holding pen.
Despite significant improvements in cooperation among the libraries and major funding increases from city government, the Revson Foundation’s business with the city’s branch libraries continues. Among other things, it is currently underwriting “Innovation Funds” at New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library, with the goal of cross-fertilization and scaling of innovation both within and across systems. And it is exploring the potential to establish a first-ever fellowship program for up-and-coming branch librarians and the feasibility of allowing branch libraries to lend local museum passes to their patrons—an idea that has been successfully implemented in many other systems across the country.
The mission of this foundation, which was founded by Algur Meadows and his wife, Virginia, in 1948, is to serve Texans in every county of the state. During its past history, its grants totaled around $800 million, and its endowment has now grown to about $1 billion. It is widely known for its preservation, starting in 1981, of 22 acres of land in downtown Dallas, called the Wilson Historic District, to provide rent-free offices exclusively for Dallas nonprofit organizations. It built the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art and provided land for the Volunteer Center of North Texas as well as Dallas’s Latino Cultural Center. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Meadows Foundation was a major contributor to efforts to serve the needs of the evacuees of those hurricanes to Dallas, Houston, and other parts of Texas.
The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was established in 1936 by Mary Reynolds Babcock and her siblings as a memorial to their brother Zachary Smith Reynolds, who died under mysterious circumstances from a shooting at the family estate when he was 20 years old. Eighty years later, that family foundation has a governing board composed of both family and nonfamily members and aims to support worthwhile civic-sector initiatives across North Carolina. Much to the chagrin of right-wing zealots,60 the foundation has maintained the centrist commitment of its founding family to the goal of advancing social justice in North Carolina by supporting new and previously existing social service–delivering organizations, educational institutions, and advocacy organizations committed to a just and fairer state and communities.
The foundation’s most visible grants were made to attract Wake Forest College from the tiny hamlet of Wake Forest, North Carolina, to a new campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for which members of the Reynolds family provided the land as well as some of the building costs, and the foundation constructed some of the buildings to house it and guaranteed in perpetuity annual support starting at $420,000 a year, which has now grown to about $2 million a year. Thanks to the foundation’s efforts, Wake Forest University has attained international stature. In 2016, it tied for 10th place in the US News and World Report rankings for “Best Undergraduate Teaching” in the United States and as 27th best overall university in the United States. In addition to its promised support, the foundation has made gifts to endow distinguished faculty professorships, one of which was filled by Maya Angelou for many years until her death in 2014. Over the 60 years since Wake Forest College moved to Winston-Salem, the foundation has given it more than $100 million.
Among the other statewide initiatives that were founded with major support from the foundation are the North Carolina Fund, which was the first statewide “War on Poverty” program in the United States after President Lyndon B. Johnson established the national Office of Economic Opportunity;61 the North Carolina School of the Arts, which, at its founding in 1963, was the first statewide, publicly supported conservatory of the arts and is now a branch of the University of North Carolina System; the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1977, which is the principal “watchdog” think tank covering state government; the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the leading nonprofit advocacy organization for the North Carolina public schools; and the Commission on Higher Education for North Carolina, which charted the development of North Carolina’s statewide system of community colleges and technical institutes.
All but the closed-minded right-wing critics applaud the foundation’s hand-in-glove relationship with North Carolina’s state and municipal governments that has helped generate North Carolina’s reputation for progressive change, at least until recently.
The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation and its six related foundations, all of which grew out of the Coca-Cola fortune, constitute the wealthiest philanthropic group in Georgia. Joseph B. Whitehead was the founder of the Coca-Cola Company, and Mr. Woodruff presided over it from 1923 until his death in 1985. Despite his celebrity as the head of Atlanta’s leading company, he sought to avoid the limelight by giving anonymously as he engaged in his generous philanthropic endeavors, which included major endowment gifts that helped elevate Emory University to its present stature as one of the nation’s leading private universities. It is said that there was hardly a civic initiative of any significance in which Mr. Woodruff was not a prime mover and generous donor. He left a large part of his fortune to these foundations, which were also supported by his relatives for whom they are named. The annual giving of these related foundations is over $321 million, and their $10 billion in assets places them among the largest 100 foundation groupings in the United States. These foundations have steadily made unique contributions over many years to the building of Atlanta into one of the major metropolitan areas in the United States and have been a constant mainstay of the large, diverse, and dynamic nonprofit sector in the city. The Woodruff Foundation describes itself as a “social venture philanthropy fund for Atlanta.”63 The Robert Woodruff Foundation is a continuing major partner with the Greater Atlanta Community Foundation and many other private foundations.
Four years before Virginia G. Piper died in 1999, she established the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, under the terms of which the trustees were given the authority to determine whether her trust would have unlimited life or would be spent down in a time period of their choosing. When her estate was settled in 2001, the trust received $600 million, making it one of the 100 largest foundations in the United States. The trust makes annual grants of about $15 million in program areas, including arts and culture, children, education, health care and medical research, older adults, and religion; and it partners frequently with the Arizona Community Foundation, which gives away about double the amount of the Piper Trust’s annual grantmaking. Over the following decade, the trustees pondered the pros and cons of perpetuity or limited life and concluded that, as the largest general purpose foundation in the state of Arizona, it was too important to Maricopa County’s nonprofit sector to be spent down and chose instead to continue for an indefinite period.