The Bay and Paul Foundations is a New York-based nonprofit that focuses on creating new educational systems that teach and advocate for government-owned banks, decentralized weather-dependent energy, “securing the means of production,” and the “elimination of hierarchies.” ¹

History

In 2005, the Bay and Paul Foundations was formed by the merger between the Bay Foundation and the Josephine Bay Paul and C. Michael Paul Foundation. The two foundations were founded in 1950 and 1962 respectively and were run as sister organizations for over 20 years before they merged. ²

Projects

Community Schools Blueprint

The Bay and Paul Foundations helped research and write the Community Schools Blueprint: Transforming the School/Community Partnership. The document discusses localizing communities in order to change the economy, environment, political and social environment, and education to help “secure the means of production” and promote the “elimination of hierarchies.” ¹ This document was originally made for the state of Vermont but was “written for the global community.” ¹

The blueprint advocates “Securing the means of production to create the products and jobs we need in ordinary time and in crises.” ¹ This is done by making farmland available for those who wish to farm and strengthening monetary systems that rely on publicly owned banks and credit unions. ¹

This blueprint states that it wants to change the environment by allowing citizens to regulate energy grids, making people use less energy, and having businesses invest in weather-dependent energy sources. ¹

This blueprint calls for the “elimination of hierarchies” ¹ and expanding popular democracy. This also calls for free access to internet, which is publicly owned, operated, and regulated. This blueprint calls for media outlets to focus on the lives of Black and Indigenous people as well as “important youth voices” and calls for the people in these communities to financially prop up these media outlets. ¹

This blueprint calls for school reforms to remove “dominant cultural ideas about progress, achievement, and merit” ¹ while having schools become “centers of healing from pandemics, isolation, oppression, poverty, and racism. ¹ It wants community members such as activists to engage directly with students as mentors, and have teachers focus on implementing ideas that prioritize social and emotions over subject matter. ¹

Grants

According to the organization’s 990 tax form, the Bay and Paul Foundation gives grants to schools, museums, theaters, and hospitals, along with Native American groups, abortion groups, environmental groups, and civic participation groups. In 2020, it gave almost $9 million in grants, most notably to Allied Media Projects, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Coalition for Green Capital, Earthjustice, and the Voter Participation Center. ³

1. Kesson, Kathleen. “The Bay & Paul Foundations.” bayandpaulfoundations.org, 2021. https://bayandpaulfoundations.org/files/10/2/communityschools-blueprint_Aug31.pdf
2. “The Bay and Paul Foundation.” Foundationcenter.org. Accessed June 12, 2023. https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/fdo-grantmaker-profile/?key=PAUL001.
3. Bay and Paul Foundations, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2020, Part XV Line 3 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131991717/202113209349101116/full