July 15, 1999 | Read Time: 4 minutes
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, one of the nation’s 100 wealthiest foundations, has merged with the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation — a move that some say could lead other foundations to consider similar alliances.
The merger took effect July 1. The new entity, worth about $670-million, is operating under the name Rockefeller Brothers Fund but will continue to use the Culpeper name for some grant-making programs. Culpeper’s operations, which were based in Stamford, Conn., have moved to the fund’s New York City headquarters.
Before the merger, Rockefeller Brothers’s endowment was $463-million; Culpeper’s was $208-million.
Foundation officials said the merger was a way to create a more effective grant-making institution that would spend less on administrative costs and therefore have more money available to give to charities.
The grant-making programs of both foundations will continue for now, but the new entity plans to start reviewing each program to determine what the foundation’s objectives should be, and how to coordinate programs that are complementary.
The first review, to start this fall, will focus on education programs. Rockefeller Brothers has previously made grants to bolster elementary and secondary education, while Culpeper supported college liberal-arts programs.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which was created in 1940 to carry out the philanthropy of the five sons and one daughter of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., also finances efforts to protect the environment, promote world security, strengthen charities, and improve the quality of life in New York City.
In addition to education, Culpeper supported health and arts groups. It was created in 1940 through the bequest of Charles Emory Culpeper, founder of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York.
The founders of the two funds did not know each other, but the foundations did have one thing in common: Colin G. Campbell. Mr. Campbell, president of the now-combined foundation, has served for 11 years as head of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and, until the merger, was vice-chairman of the Culpeper Foundation.
Mr. Campbell and others involved in the merger said the idea came up because Culpeper was concerned about the way changes on its board and staff would affect its future. Five trustees who had had a longtime association with the foundation had retired or died in the past five years. And Francis J. McNamara, Jr., who had served as head of Culpeper for more than 30 years, planned to retire in December.
Mr. McNamara said the trustees debated whether the size of the board should be expanded to minimize the impact of a departure or two and to gain additional perspective. They also considered spending all the foundation’s assets over the next few years and shutting down, but that idea was dropped.
Then a little more than a year ago, trustees talked to Mr. Campbell about the possibility of a merger with Rockefeller Brothers. After several months of discussions, the two foundations decided a merger would be the ideal solution.
Four Culpeper trustees have joined the governing board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which previously had 15 members. In addition, four staff members joined the Rockefeller Brothers staff; two staff members — plus Mr. McNamara, who is retiring — decided not to make the move to New York.
The merger of Culpeper and Rockefeller Brothers had to be approved by the New York State Attorney General’s office and several other regulatory authorities to determine whether the donors’ intentions would be carried out by the new entity. (Although the Culpeper Foundation was based in Connecticut, it was incorporated in New York.)
While mergers are rare in the foundation world, they are not unheard of. What makes the Rockefeller Brothers-Culpeper alliance unusual is the size and reputation of the two foundations, and the fact that there was no connection between the donors.
Grant makers say they expect in coming years that more foundations will consider merging.
Susan Berresford, president of the Ford Foundation, in New York, agrees that more foundations will consider mergers as a way to become more effective in dealing with major societal issues.
“Most problems need broad solutions, not little silver bullets,” she said. “And when you have a good example like this it makes people think and talk and debate.”
Some foundations say mergers may become a way for grant makers that are not among the very largest to gain greater clout.
“When Bill Gates gives $5-billion to the Gates Foundation it automatically puts it in the top-tier category of foundations,” said Avery Russell, director of public affairs and program officer for the $1.6-billion Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was once among the 10 wealthiest private foundations and has since dropped to around No. 30. “The smaller foundations, of which Carnegie is beginning to be one, need to ask themselves what their role is going to be in the universe of foundations — which continue to be created at a very rapid rate.”
For additional information about the foundations’ merger, contact Priscilla Lewis, Director of Communications, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, 437 Madison Avenue, New York 10022-7001; (212) 812-4200; World-Wide Web: http://www.rbf.org.
