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Non-profit

Broad Foundation

Website:

broadfoundation.org
Location:

LOS ANGELES, CA
Tax ID:

95-4686318
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)-PF

Budget (2015):

Revenue: $99,327,215
Expenses: $79,215,395
Assets: $1,842,260,094

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The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (Broad Foundation) is a philanthropic foundation funded by California billionaire Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe. From 1999 through 2016 the Broad Foundation provided grants totaling at least $1.5 billion, 87 percent of which went to three areas: K-12 education, science and health, and arts and culture. 1 The gun control advocacy groups Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Violence Policy Center have received a combined total of $500,000 from the Broad Foundation since 2007. 2 Eli Broad has been a large and regular donor to Democrats and gave more than $700,000 to federal Democratic politicians and Democratic-aligned committees during the 2018 election cycle. 3

Mr. Broad managed the foundation until 2017, when longtime employee Gerun Riley replaced him as president of the Broad Foundation. Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Andy Stern is also on the foundation board. 4 At least $600 million of the Broad Foundation grantmaking since 1999 has been dedicated to what foundation documents refer to as “improving” K-12 public education. 5 At least $144 million of the K-12 total has gone toward creating and maintaining charter public schools. 6

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has been a focus of the foundation’s work with charter schools, and this has led to sustained opposition and criticism from city teachers’ union boss Alex Caputo-Pearl, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles. Caputo-Pearl has called Mr. Broad a “billionaire privatizer and union buster”7 and accused him of launching a “comprehensive attack on our historic national commitment to public education and the democratic principles of transparency, accountability, and equity.” 8

Background

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation (Broad Foundation) is a philanthropic foundation funded by California billionaire Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe. Eli Broad has been a large and regular donor to Democrats and gave more than $700,000 to federal Democratic politicians and Democratic-aligned committees during the 2018 election cycle. 9

From 1999 through 2016 the Broad Foundation provided grants totaling at least $1.5 billion, 87 percent of which went to three areas: K-12 education, science and health, and arts and culture. 10 For 2016 the Broad Foundation gave total grants of at least $148 million, with 60 percent ($89 million) given to medical care and medical research. A single $85 million grant for genomic and biomedical research in 2016 was provided to the Broad Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (part of more than $500 million provided to this research institute by the Broad Foundation since 2009). 11

At the end of 2015 the Broad Foundation reported net assets of $1.4 billion. 12

Eli Broad was raised in Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Michigan State University. The Broads married in 1953 and later moved to Southern California. 13

Broad began his business career building starter homes in Michigan and expanded it across the nation and into France. In 1971 he purchased the SunLife insurance firm for $52 million. He expanded SunLife, renamed it SunAmerica, and in 1999 sold it for $18 billion to insurance giant AIG. From 1999 to 2017 the Broads directly managed the foundation and the personal philanthropy. 14

In October 2017 Mr. Broad announced he was stepping down from personal management of the foundation and appointing longtime Broad Foundation executive Gerun Riley as president. The Broads remain on the foundation’s board of directors, as does Ms. Riley. Former Service Employees International Union president Andy Stern is also on the board. Most of the other board members are from the construction, finance, insurance and scientific research industries. 15

Education Policy Grants

At least $600 million of the Broad Foundation grantmaking since 1999 has been dedicated to what foundation documents refer to as “improving” K-12 public education. 16 At least $144 million of this total has gone toward creating and maintaining charter public schools. 17 The foundation’s investments in this area have been opposed by left-of-center unions representing public school employees. 18

Education programs

The Broad Foundation promotes several programs and grant recipients as central to its K-12 grantmaking strategy. 19 20

Broad Center for the Management of School Systems: Also known as the “Broad Center,” this organization develops future leaders of urban school districts, charter school system managers, and provides leadership training for current public education executives. The Broad Center was created by the Broad Foundation and became a separate non-profit organization in 2007. As of 2016 the Broad Foundation has given grants totaling at least $90 million to the Broad Center. The board of the Broad Center includes Broad Foundation president Gerun Riley and Broad Foundation board member Andy Stern. 21 22

California charter schools: Of the $144 million in public charter school support provided by the Broad Foundation, at least $48 million has been targeted for California – particularly within the Los Angeles Unified School District. 23 24 “Expanding learning opportunities for L.A. students” is the sub-headline on the masthead of the Broad Foundation’s education grantmaking page. 25

Great Public Schools Now: Great Public Schools Now is a parent advocacy organization that promotes the growth of education alternatives (such as public charters, public magnet schools) in “high-poverty areas of Greater Los Angeles.” 26 In 2016 Great Public Schools Now received a $4.9 million grant from the Broad Foundation. 27

KIPP charter schools: The Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) is a large charter school management organization with 60,000 students attending 160 schools in 20 states. Most of the students (87 percent) are from low-income homes and (97 percent) are African-American or Latino. The Broad Foundation has given at least $23 million to KIPP, with $12 million targeted at the Los Angeles area. 28

Success Academy Charter Schools: A New York City charter school network that began in Harlem, serving largely low-income and minority students, Success Academy now has 9,000 students in 35 schools across the city. The Broad Foundation claims to have been the system’s “first major investor,” back in 2008, and has since given Success Academy at least $14 million. 29

Teach for America: Teach for America has received at least $40 million in grants from the Broad Foundation. It is a program that recruits and trains recent college graduates to become teachers prepared to teach in underserved, low-income communities. 30

Los Angeles Charter Schools

The operation of a large network of public charter schools by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was a major point of dispute in the run-up to a January 2019 strike by the Unified Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA). 31 Through both grants from the Broad Foundation, and through his local political donations to school board candidates, Eli Broad has supported an expansion of publicly funded, privately operated, and mostly non-unionized charter schools.. 32 By late 2018, LAUSD had become what the Los Angeles Daily News described as “the largest charter school authorizer in the nation serving over 154,000 students out of its total enrollment of just over 694,000.” 33

UTLA union president Alex Caputo-Pearl has repeatedly criticized LAUSD charters and Eli Broad personally. Informed in March 2019 that Mr. Broad had donated $100,000 toward an LAUSD school board race, the UTLA president called Broad a “billionaire privatizer and union buster.” 34 In a December 2015 UTLA news release, Caputo-Pearl mocked what he called the “the Broad-Walmart plan” to create allegedly “unregulated charters.” 35 In a December 2015 letter to the LAUSD Board of Education, Caputo-Pearl and eight other union chiefs demanded that “Eli Broad stop this destructive privatization of education in Los Angeles.” 36

Caputo-Pearl also criticized recipients of Broad Foundation grants involved in education reform, among them Teach for America, KIPP, and Great Public Schools Now. 37 38 In a 2012 New York Times essay, the year before he became a candidate for UTLA president, he accused Teach for America of advancing a “dangerous “quick fix” model of school reform that is harming rather than helping urban schools” and KIPP of a bias against teaching “the most needy students.” 39

Concessions to Teachers Union

In late-January 2019, following the ending of a strike by the United Teachers of Los Angeles against the Los Angeles Unified School District, the LAUSD Board of Education voted in favor of a non-binding resolution calling on the California legislature to impose a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools. An agreement to hold the vote was part of contract agreement between the LAUSD and the UTLA. Even though three of the six members on the board were considered favorable to the charter school movement in L.A., the measure passed, 5-1. 40

During the moratorium vote, supporters of charter schools – including students relying upon them and their parents – protested outside.

“I felt that it was important to be here today because students and families should have the choice of where to go to school,” said one 18-year-old student to the Los Angeles Times. “Not every school is perfect. So every school, every family, needs to have their choice of where to send their student, to have the best fit possible for them.” A graduate of a local charter school added: “I dream of a day when three old, privileged, white guys won’t bargain away our public school choice.” 41

Following the moratorium vote, Andy Stern, a board member at both the Broad Foundation and the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, wrote an opinion essay for the Daily Beast titled “Charter Schools Didn’t Change the World—Now Let’s Move Beyond That Tired Debate.” The sub-headline asserted “the verdict is in: Charter schools aren’t the panacea their proponents hoped. Now let’s lay down our arms and help the kids.” 42

In late March 2019, Inside Philanthropy interviewed Stern for a report on the charter school movement and concluded that “Stern’s enthusiasm for the [charter] schools is waning, and it sounds like Broad’s may be, as well.” Referring to Broad, Stern told the interviewer: “I don’t think he sees his remaining time he’s going to spend in education as focused on charters as he once had to be. I’d say there’s an equal philosophical commitment to charters and an appreciation of L.A.’s charter schools and their movement. I’d also say there’s an appreciation that charters are not ever going to be the answer to the education dilemma.” 43

The report also noted the Broad Foundation’s “support of charter schools reached a high water mark in 2007 at around $50 million in grants, but the foundation has failed to top that number in the intervening years.” 44

Left-of-Center Policy Funding

The Broad Foundation has provided grants to several left-of-center policy organizations since 2007, and in two cases most of the funding appears to have been part of Broad’s broader K-12 education policy agenda. From 2011 to 2016 the New Venture Fund received at least $1.5 million from the foundation, with $1.2 million of this in education policy grants. The Center for American Progress received at least $1.8 million between 2007 and 2016, with $1.5 million earmarked as grants for education policy. (From 2008 to 2016, the center-right American Enterprise Institute also received a total of $100,000 in grants from the Broad Foundation, all of it for education policy.)45

Between 2007 and 2014 the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Violence Policy Center, two left-of-center gun control organizations, received a combined total of $500,000 from the Broad Foundation. 46

References

  1. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  2. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  3. Center for Responsive Politics. “Donor Lookup: Eli Broad.” OpenSecrets.org. October 22, 2018. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Eli+broad&order=desc&sort=D
  4. “About Us.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/about-us/
  5. “Education.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/education
  6. “Founders Letter: 2015-16 Foundation Report.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. http://broadfoundationreport.org/portfolio/letters/entrepreneurship-for-the-public-good-in-education-science-and-the-arts/
  7. Blume, Howard. “Eli Broad weighs in at last minute with $100,000 donation in L.A. school board race.” Los Angeles Times. March 7, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-eli-broad-lausd-school-board-election-20190307-story.html
  8. “Parents, students, educators, urge BOE to oppose Broad Plan.” UTLA. December 7, 2015. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.utla.net/news/parents-students-educators-urge-boe-oppose-broad-plan
  9. Center for Responsive Politics. “Donor Lookup: Eli Broad.” OpenSecrets.org. October 22, 2018. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Eli+broad&order=desc&sort=D
  10. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  11. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  12. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. 2015 IRS Form 990.
  13. “About Us.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/about-us/
  14. “About Us.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/about-us/
  15. “About Us.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/about-us/
  16. “Education.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/education
  17. “Founders Letter: 2015-16 Foundation Report.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. http://broadfoundationreport.org/portfolio/letters/entrepreneurship-for-the-public-good-in-education-science-and-the-arts/
  18. “Parents, students, educators, urge BOE to oppose Broad Plan.” Unified Teachers of Los Angeles. December 7, 2015. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://www.utla.net/news/parents-students-educators-urge-boe-oppose-broad-plan
  19. “Education.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/education/
  20. “Current Grantees.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/current-grantees/
  21. “The Broad Center.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/grantees/the-broad-center/
  22. “Board of Directors.” The Broad Center. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.broadcenter.org/about/our-team/board-of-directors/
  23. “Founders Letter: 2015-16 Foundation Report.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. http://broadfoundationreport.org/portfolio/letters/entrepreneurship-for-the-public-good-in-education-science-and-the-arts/
  24. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019. (This includes some KIPP grants targeted at California).
  25. “Education.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/education/
  26. “Mission.” Great Public Schools Now. Accessed April 3, 2019. http://www.greatpublicschoolsnow.org/
  27. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  28. “KIPP.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/grantees/kipp/
  29. “Success Academy.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/grantees/success-academy/
  30. “Teach for America.” The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Accessed April 2, 2019. https://broadfoundation.org/grantees/teach-for-america/
  31. Rubin, Erin. “Los Angeles Teachers’ Strike Exposes Long-Term Corrosive Effects of Charters.” Non Profit Quarterly. January 14, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2019/01/15/los-angeles-teachers-strike-exposes-long-term-corrosive-effects-of-charters/
  32. Blume, Howard. “Repenning moves into second place as count continues in L.A. school board race.” Los Angeles Times. March 8, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-lausd-school-board-election-update-20190308-story.html
  33. Plachta, Ariella. “Teachers union demands ‘immediate’ cap on new charter schools in LAUSD, days after setting strike date.” Los Angeles Daily News. December 21, 2018. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.dailynews.com/2018/12/21/teachers-union-demands-immediate-cap-on-new-charter-schools-in-lausd-days-after-setting-strike-date/
  34. Blume, Howard. “Eli Broad weighs in at last minute with $100,000 donation in L.A. school board race.” Los Angeles Times. March 7, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-eli-broad-lausd-school-board-election-20190307-story.html
  35. “Parents, students, educators, urge BOE to oppose Broad Plan.” UTLA. December 7, 2015. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.utla.net/news/parents-students-educators-urge-boe-oppose-broad-plan
  36. “December 7, 2015 union presidents letter to BOE.” UTLA. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.utla.net/sites/default/files/UnionpresidentslettertoBOE%20120715.pdf
  37. “Parents, students, educators, urge BOE to oppose Broad Plan.” UTLA. December 7, 2015. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.utla.net/news/parents-students-educators-urge-boe-oppose-broad-plan
  38. Caputo-Pearl, Alex. “Competing visions for public education.” UTLA. November 14, 2018. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.utla.net/news/competing-visions-public-education
  39. Caputo-Pearl, Alex. “Teach for America Shows the Downside of Quick Fixes to Education.” New York Times. August 30, 2012. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/08/30/is-teach-for-america-working/teach-for-america-shows-the-downside-of-quick-fixes-to-education
  40. Blume, Howard. “L.A. school board approves teachers’ contract despite financial risks.” Los Angeles Times. January 29, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-teachers-contract-vote-20190128-story.html
  41. Blume, Howard. “L.A. school board approves teachers’ contract despite financial risks.” Los Angeles Times. January 29, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-lausd-teachers-contract-vote-20190128-story.html
  42. Stern, Andy. “Charter Schools Didn’t Change the World—Now Let’s Move Beyond That Tired Debate.” February 3, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.thedailybeast.com/charter-schools-didnt-change-the-worldnow-lets-move-beyond-that-tired-debate
  43. Caitlin, Reilly. “Inflection Point: Taking Stock of Philanthropy and the Charter School Movement.” Inside Philanthropy. March 27, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/3/27/inflection-point-taking-stock-of-philanthropy-and-the-charter-school-movement
  44. Caitlin, Reilly. “Inflection Point: Taking Stock of Philanthropy and the Charter School Movement.” Inside Philanthropy. March 27, 2019. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/3/27/inflection-point-taking-stock-of-philanthropy-and-the-charter-school-movement
  45. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
  46. Data compiled by FoundationSearch.com subscription service, a project of Metasoft Systems, Inc., from forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Queries conducted April 1, 2019.
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: February 1, 1999

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2015 Dec Form PF $99,327,215 $79,215,395 $1,842,260,094 $469,384,293 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2014 Dec Form PF $151,034,671 $192,996,506 $1,941,410,735 $519,148,272 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2013 Dec Form PF $226,699,742 $229,326,610 $1,889,617,384 $516,735,949 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2012 Dec Form PF $222,303,937 $170,474,948 $1,658,457,965 $427,464,548 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2011 Dec Form PF $167,284,039 $289,829,015 $1,560,281,559 $434,427,720 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Broad Foundation

    2121 AVENUE OF THE STARS STE 3000
    LOS ANGELES, CA 90067-5058