Christopher Reynolds Foundation

The Christopher Reynolds Foundation is one of several left-of-center advocacy grantmaking institutions derived from the fortune of the Reynolds family that founded the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company; others include the Z Smith Reynolds Foundation, the Arca Foundation, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.

History

The Christopher Reynolds Foundation was established by Libby Holman, in honor of her son Christopher “Topper” Reynolds, who died in a mountain climbing accident in August 1950, at the age of 17. ²

Holman’s first husband was the tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds. After less than a year of marriage, her husband was shot to death at the Reynolds family estate. As Holman was in the room when her husband she was shot, she was initially charged with murder. The Reynolds’ family eventually dropped the murder charges and Holman and her son inherited $7 million. ²

In 1959, Holman helped sponsor a trip to India for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, through the Christopher Reynolds Foundation. ² In India, the Kings learned more about Gandhi’s techniques for social change through nonviolence, and how to apply that to the American Civil Rights Movement. ³

Holman also contributed to the defense of Benjamin Spock for his opposition to the Vietnam War. ² A well-known pediatrician and writer, Spock was one of “The Boston Five” who were federally indicted in 1968, accused of “conspiring to urge people to violate draft laws.” ⁴

After U.S. diplomatic relations with Vietnam normalized, the Foundation focused for many years on efforts to support the strengthening of diplomatic relations between U.S. and Cuba. ¹

The Foundation is currently transitioning its grantmaking focus, and will likely begin to fund issues of “sustainability, social economy, agroecology, and local development.” ¹

Board of Directors

Andrea Panaritis is the executive director and member of the board; she has been with the foundation since 1985. ⁵

John Roosevelt Boettiger, the grandson of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, has been the fresident and chairman of the board since 1975. ⁶ He is, and became a member of the advisory board of the Living New Deal in 2014. ⁷

Donation Recipients

• A.J. Muste Memorial Institute (non-profit)
• American Friends Service Committee (non-profit)
• American Sustainable Business Council (non-profit)
• Artemis National Wildlife Foundation (non-profit)
• Atlantic Council (non-profit)
• Bill of Rights Institute (non-profit)
• Boston University (non-profit)
• Brookings Institute (non-profit)
• California Indian Environmental Alliance (non-profit)
• Carter Center (non-profit)
• Center for Constitutional Rights (non-profit)
• Center for Cuban Studies (non-profit)
• Center for Defense Information (non-profit)
• Center for Global Justice (non-profit)
• Center for International Policy (non-profit)
• Center for National Policy (CNP) (non-profit)
• Center for Political Ecology (non-profit)
• Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) (non-profit)
• Center for Reproductive Rights (non-profit)
• Center for Science in the Public Interest (non-profit)
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (non-profit)
• City University of New York (non-profit)
• Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (non-profit)
• Cornell University (non-profit)
• Council on the Uncertain Human Future (non-profit)
• Earthjustice (non-profit)
• Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) (non-profit)
• Essential Information (non-profit)
• Fund for Constitutional Government (non-profit)
• Georgetown University (non-profit)
• Global Exchange (non-profit)
• Green Cities Fund (non-profit)
• Green Map System Inc (non-profit)
• Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (non-profit)
• Honor the Earth (non-profit)
• Humane Farming Association (non-profit)
• Indigenous Environmental Network (non-profit)
• International Crane Foundation (non-profit)
• International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (non-profit)
• Lexington Institute (non-profit)
• Living New Deal (Non-profit)
• Movement Strategy Center (non-profit)
• National Audubon Society (non-profit)
• National Day Laborer Organizing Network (non-profit)
• National Lawyers Guild (non-profit)
• National Lawyers Guild Foundation (non-profit)
• National Medical Association (non-profit)
• National Public Radio (non-profit)
• National Security Archive Fund (non-profit)
• New America Foundation (non-profit)
• New School (non-profit)
• New York University (non-profit)
• New World Foundation (NWF) (non-profit)
• North American Congress on Latin America (non-profit)
• Ocean Foundation (non-profit)
• Orion Society (non-profit)
• Planting Justice (non-profit)
• Project South (non-profit)
• Rabinowitz Foundation (non-profit)
• Schumacher Center for New Economics (non-profit)
• Search for the Cause (non-profit)
• Social Science Research Council (non-profit)
• Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) (non-profit)
• Southwest Workers Union (labor union)
• Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice (non-profit)
• Taos Institute (non-profit)
• Triskeles Foundation (non-profit)
• Trust Women Foundation (non-profit)
• Truthout (non-profit)
• UN Women for Peace Association (UNWFPA) (non-profit)
• University of Massachusetts Boston (non-profit)
• Washington Office on Latin America (non-profit)
• Wildlife Conservation Society (non-profit)
• Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (non-profit)
• Women Make Movies (non-profit)
• World Policy Institute (non-profit)
• World Security Institute (non-profit)
• Yes Magazine (non-profit)