The Sall Family Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that supports environmentalist and conservationist organizations within the United States and the United Kingdom. ¹ The Foundation has made contributions to organizations that seek to prevent the commercial development of forested lands, promote environmentalist litigation, and engage in lobbying for environmentalist policy. ²

Finances

In 2018, the Sall Family Foundation received $12,792,949 in direct contributions from John and Virginia Sall,³ as well as $904,298 in dividends and interest from securities. ⁴ The Foundation reported $35,655,755 in assets, primarily in securities. ⁵

Grant Recipients

In 2018, the Sall Family Foundation contributed $85,000 to the United Kingdom-based Blue Ventures Conservation, an organization that pushes for shutting down economic activity, especially commercial fishing, along African coastlines to preserve wildlife. ⁶ The Foundation also gave $50,000 to the United Kingdom-based Forest Peoples Programme, a conservationist organization that seeks to limit the development of forests across the world. ⁷

In 2018, the Sall Family Foundation made its largest contributions to the anti-poverty organization CARE ($5.3 million) and a series of environmentalist groups: the World Wildlife Fund ($3.67 million), the Rocky Mountain Institute ($1 million), the Nature Conservancy ($700,000), and the Environmental Defense Fund ($600,000). ⁸

The Sall Family Foundation has previously made contributions to the formerly nominally libertarian Niskanen Center, which is closely aligned with openly left-progressive environmentalist groups. A Niskanen Center report states that the Center received $300,000 from the Foundation for its work on climate policy and carbon taxation. ⁹ A similar report from September of 2019 states that the Niskanen Center received $200,000 from the Sall Foundation, while its lobbying arm, the Niskanen Center for Public Policy, received $200,000 from the Foundation. ¹⁰

Leadership

Jason W. Haggins is the executive director of the Sall Family Foundation. ¹¹ Haggins is a board member of CARE, a global development organization that receives funding through private contributions and the federal government. Haggins was previously a senior director at Alvarez and Marsal, a management consulting firm that has emerged as the consultancy firm of choice for oil and gas companies filing for bankruptcy. ¹²

John Sall, the billionaire financier of the Sall Family Foundation, is the president of the organization. ¹³ He is one of the founders of the SAS Institute, the largest privately-held analytics software company in the world. ¹⁴

1. “Founders’ Charter” Sall Family Foundation. https://www.sallfamily.org/
2. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part VII-B, Line 5c-Expenditure Responsibility Statement (Attachment 13).
3. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Schedule-B, Part I(a). 
4. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part I, Line 4.
5. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part II, Line 16.
6. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part VII-B, Line 5c-Expenditure Responsibility Statement (Attachment 9); “Rebuilding fisheries” Blue Ventures. https://blueventures.org/conservation/rebuilding-fisheries/; “Blue Carbon” Sall Family Foundation. https://blueventures.org/conservation/blue-forests/
7. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part VII-B, Line 5c-Expenditure Responsibility Statement (Attachment 9); “About” Forrest Peoples Programme. https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/about.
8. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax” Guidestar.org. Accessed October 21, 2020. Part VII-B, Line 5c-Expenditure Responsibility Statement (Attachment 13).
9. “Donation History” Niskanen Center. https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Niskanen-Center-funding-10-22-2020.pdf
10. “Donation History” Niskanen Center. https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Niskanen-Center-funding-Sept-2018-August-2019.pdf
11. “Leadership” Sall Family Foundation. https://www.sallfamily.org/leadership
12. Good, Alison. “Alvarez & Marsal dominates bankruptcy financial services for oil and gas sector” S&P Global. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/alvarez-marsal-dominates-bankruptcy-financial-services-for-oil-and-gas-sector-59139041
13. “Leadership” Sall Family Foundation. https://www.sallfamily.org/leadership
14. “Case in Point: SAS Institute Invests in Employees” Lumen. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-tc3-management/chapter/case-in-point-sas-institute-invests-in-employees/