$700 Million and Counting: How Foundations Have Responded to Trump

President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate-change pact prompted protests ― and commitments by major foundations to move millions more dollars into climate work. Grant makers have also beefed up funding in health care, immigration, and other areas deeply affected by administration policies. President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate-change pact prompted protests ― and commitments by major foundations to move millions more dollars into climate work. Grant makers have also beefed up funding in health care, immigration, and other areas deeply affected by administration policies.

August 14, 2017 | Read Time: 5 minutes

Editor’s note: This article and chart have been updated to include grant commitments by the NoVo and California Wellness foundations and additional details on the Nathan Cummings and Barr foundations’ efforts.

The election of Donald Trump has led many large foundations to rethink how they do business.

Some shifted grant-making priorities in response to the president’s proposals; others increased their overall spending to accommodate new programs and strategies.

The Chronicle compiled information on foundation actions taken in direct reaction to Trump administration policies or more generally linked by grant makers to the current political environment. We collected information publicly disseminated by foundations and also reached out directly to the 20 largest private foundations by asset size. Total commitments to date exceed $700 million — not including those by groups that announced proportional increases in grant making but did not give dollar amounts.

The Ford and MacArthur funds said their grant-making strategies were already aligned with the challenges posed by the current political and economic environment. Here’s what we found among other foundations :

Foundation	Amount	Venture
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation	$375 million	Responding to Trump administration plans to cut federal spending on international family planning, the nation’s largest private grant maker made a commitment to global contraception programs.
Omidyar Network	$100 million	In April, the philanthropic LLC announced plans to invest to support investigative journalism, help citizens engage with government, and reduce hate speech.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation	$63 million	Each year, Hewlett sets aside its discretionary budget to explore new areas of funding, collaborate with other donors, or make grants for urgent needs. In January, Hewlett earmarked that funding pot to address immediate efforts to alleviate global poverty, mitigate the worst effects of climate change, strengthen U.S. democracy, and support women’s health.
California Wellness Foundation	$35 million	The foundation said it is shifting its entire grant-making budget to focus on access to health care for Californians, including immigrants; maintaining the social safety net for low-income residents; and preventing hate crimes.
California Endowment	$25 million	The grant maker created a fund, which it plans to spend down in three years, to help Californians hurt by federal budget cuts, protect immigrants who face deportation, and support efforts by artists to promote the role of minorities in American life.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation	$24 million	Three days before President Trump’s inauguration, the foundation held a “National Day of Healing” as part of its ongoing “Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation” effort. In June, Kellogg announced new grants to organizations that work to bridge the racial divide.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation	$22 million	Citing the president’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord as well as what it called threats to health care and the environment, the California foundation said in June that it would increase its payout this year.
NoVo Foundation	$20 million	The grant maker headed by Peter and Jennifer Buffett created the Radical Hope Fund, which will distribute money over four years to social-justice organizations worldwide.
Bloomberg Philanthropies	$15 million for the climate convention; $3 million for job training	Following the climate-pact pullout, billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg said he would provide funding for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to help countries fulfill their commitment to the agreement. He also committed to support job-training and economic-development efforts in areas hit by the decline of the coal industry.
Open Society Foundations	$10 million	With reports of violence against minorities on the rise nationwide, Open Society announced an effort in November to document and combat hate crimes and help community groups head off incidents of intimidation and assaults based on race, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation.
Nathan Cummings Foundation	$8 million	The New York grant maker is boosting its grant making by $4 million in each of the next two years to address discrimination, racism, income inequality, and other concerns.
Kresge Foundation	$3 million	In December, the grant maker set aside money for an “opportunity fund” to respond to changing social circumstances and political events. The fund aims to support immigrant and refugee communities and antiracism efforts; explore state mandates that localities enforce immigration laws and barriers to local communities’ efforts to advance their agendas; and boost emerging nonprofit leaders.
Barr Foundation	$3 million	The Boston grant maker announced two special programs following the election, one to support investigative journalism and freedom of the press and another to fund groups working to help the most vulnerable residents of Massachusetts.
Craig Newmark Foundation	$2 million	The foundation gave $1 million each to media organizations the Poynter Institute and ProPublica to combat “fake news.”
Rockefeller Foundation	$1.8 million	In January, after the president issued his travel ban affecting refugrees and citizens of some majority-Muslim countries, Rockefeller donated $500,000 each to the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, and the International Rescue Committee. In July, citing an environment of “violence, hostility, and prejudice” against LGBTQ people, it awarded $100,000 each to the New York City LBGTQ Community Center, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and the Campaign for Southern Equality.
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation	$1.2 million	In August, the grant maker awarded money to groups in its home city of that provide legal aid and education to immigrants.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund	$3 million	The additional money went, in part, to the fund’s Democratic Practice, which supports voting rights and works to curb the influence of money in politics. The increase in grant making will also help support a rapid-response fund at the foundation to make grants outside of the grant maker’s established program areas.
Annie E. Casey Foundation	25% increase in grants for some types of advocacy	The Baltimore foundation boosted grant making to groups that advocate on issues and policies affecting children and families.

Correction: The chart has been updated with a new description of the Rockefeller Brothers’ Fund’s effort and to indicate that it has put $3 million toward that effort.