The Emerson Collective is a left-of-center private grantmaking enterprise that advocates for a wide variety of left-of-center causes. The Collective was founded in 2004 by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow and heir of Apple Computer executive Steve Jobs. Utilizing an unusual non-profit LLC structure, the Collective supports opportunities for underprivileged Americans through philanthropic grants, political advocacy, venture capital investments, and media production. ¹ Its nonprofit private-foundation arm is titled “Waverly Street Foundation.”²

Despite its considerable influence and enormous size, with over $1.8 billion in assets and 184 employees,³ the Collective largely operates in secrecy and maintains a low profile. ⁴⁵

In 2021, Laurene Powell Jobs, announced she would be investing an additional $3.5 billion in the Foundation to be expended over the next ten years. It was also announced that Lisa Jackson, Apple Inc.’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, and EPA head under President Barack Obama, would chair the board. ⁶

Structure

While most charitable non-profits are organized as 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit corporations, the Emerson Collective is a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), a structure ordinarily used for for-profit businesses. ⁷ LLCs rarely attain tax-exempt status due to the complexity of complying with the relevant regulations. ⁸

One of the requirements for an LLC to be a non-profit is for the entity to be owned by another non-profit. ⁹ Hence, the Emerson Collective is owned by the Emerson Collective Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. While the Foundation must publicly disclose its financial statements, it is not required to reveal the inner workings of the Emerson Collective. ¹⁰

By operating as an LLC, the Collective can use its funds for a wider variety of purposes than traditional charities, including political advocacy. It also enjoys less rigorous reporting requirements,¹¹ and does not publicly reveal its financial statements nor grant award amounts. ¹²

Due in part to the Emerson Collective’s structural opacity, left-of-center philanthropy website Inside Philanthropy named Powell Jobs its “Least Transparent Mega-Giver” of 2019. ¹³

Philosophy

Powell Jobs began her philanthropic career in 1997 with College Track, a Palo Alto-based education non-profit. She started the Collective seven years later, but the organization grew dramatically after Powell Jobs inherited $14.1 billion from her husband,¹⁴ expanding from 10 employees to its current staff of over 180. ¹⁵¹⁶

Powell Jobs has expressed concern with the perceived lack of social and economic mobility in the US, and attributes these shortcomings to structural injustices and institutional stagnation. ¹⁷

As founder and president of the Collective, Powell Jobs modeled the organization after the Silicon Valley start-up culture Steve Jobs helped pioneer. She intended to build an organization which could fund ambitious ideas across any field which might benefit her broadly progressive goals. Innovation is encouraged and failure on bold ideas accepted; each of the Collective’s eight sectors are run like start-ups, and their operators are given latitude to pursue their goals with little oversight. ¹⁸

Combined with the LLC structure, Powell Jobs has steered the Collective across an unusually wide breadth of fields, including education, immigration, environmentalism, journalism, healthcare research, entrepreneurialism, gun control, voting rights, among others. Likewise, the Collective has funded an equally varied array of methods to pursue its goals, leading the Washington Post to describe the organization as “equal parts think tank, foundation, venture capital fund, media baron, arts patron and activist hive.” ¹⁹

Prominent Staff

The Emerson Collective has numerous staff members who have had prominent political careers, most of which were on the Democratic side. These include:

• Arne Duncan, Education Secretary in President Barack Obama’s administration
• Russlyn Ali, Assistant Education Secretary for Civil Rights in the Obama administration
• Andy Karsner, Assistant Energy Secretary for Renewable Energy in President George W. Bush’s administration
• Dan Tangherlini, head of General Services in the Obama administration
• Jennifer Palmieri, Communications Director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign²⁰

Notable Activity

Venture Capital Investments

By taking advantage of its LLC structure, the Collective is willing to stake companies whose business goals align with its own philanthropic values. Since 2014, the Collective has funded more than 30 for-profit start-ups, including a floating data center company, and a supersonic aircraft company. It took an early stake in the social media platform, Pinterest, which launched a $12.8 billion IPO in 2019. ²¹

While the Collective does not take profits, Powell Jobs has drawn criticism for using her philanthropic organization as a de facto venture capital fund. ²²

The Atlantic Acquisition

In 2017, the Collective paid over $100 million for a reported 70% stake²³ in The Atlantic, the 162 year-old magazine and multi-platform publication. Beyond pricing and equity, the terms of the deal have not been publicly revealed,²⁴ but Powell Jobs has expressed her support for journalistic independence as a crucial component of maintaining democracy. ²⁵

The Collective has funded numerous other left-of-center media outlets, including Mother Jones, Marshall Project, and ProPublica. ²⁶

Mexico-US Border Wall Art

In October, the Collective financed an art installation spanning both sides of a Mexico-US border barrier to protest the immigration policies of the Trump administration. The piece, depicting the eyes of Mayra, a young illegal immigrant, was created by French street artist, JR. ²⁷

XQ: The Super School Project

XQ is the Collective’s initiative to fund 14 model school experiments across the country to change the institutional structure of secondary education. ²⁸²⁹

In 2017, the Collective put on the XQ Super School Live Special on ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC which drew heavy criticism for its implied dismissal of past education reform efforts and the value of teachers. ³⁰³¹

Biden Community Violence Intervention Collaborative

In June 2021, the Biden administration announced a program to combat rising gun violence and violent crime using a collaborative composed of government and nonprofit organizations funding community violence intervention (CVI) measures. Emerson Collective was reported to be a funder of the collaborative along with other foundations such as California Endowment, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Kellogg Foundation. Other foundations funding the initiative include the Kresge Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Arnold Ventures, the Heising-Simons Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. CVI strategies “act as an alternative to heavy-handed policing” by focusing its efforts on the minority of citizens who are perpetrators or targets of violent crime. CVI treats violence as a communicable disease rather than a violent crime and attempts to stop the “spread” of violence. ³²

3.5 Billion Dollar Investment

In 2021, Laurene Powell Jobs, announced she would be investing $3.5 billion in the Foundation to be expended over the next ten years to “show the urgency of the issue.” It was also announced that Lisa Jackson, Apple Inc.’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, and EPA head under President Obama, would chair the board. ³³

Grantmaking

In 2019, the foundation granted $95 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. ³⁴

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24. “Emerson Collective To Acquire Majority Ownership of the Atlantic, Forming Partnership With David Bradley.” The Atlantic. Accessed January 7, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2017/07/emerson-collective-to-acquire-majority-ownership-of-the-atlantic-forming-partnership-with-david-bradley/535230/.
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31. “The false narrative behind a glitzy live television show about school reform.” Washington Post. Accessed January 8, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/09/07/the-false-narrative-behind-a-glitzy-live-television-show-about-school-reform/
32. Rojc, Philip. “Backing Up Biden: Grantmakers Get Behind a New Federal Anti-Violence Collaborative.” Inside Philanthropy. Inside Philanthropy, July 6, 2021. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2021/7/1/backing-up-biden-grantmakers-get-behind-a-new-federal-anti-violence-collaborative?utm_source=Funding%2BNews%2B%26%2BTips&utm_campaign=f22df871f4-newsletterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c776dbf0df-f22df871f4-95098585.
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34. Return of Tax-exempt Organization. Form 990. The Waverley Street Foundation. 2019. Attachment 11. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/813242506_201912_990PF_2021050718080855.pdf.