Conru Foundation

It has given donations to drug-legalization policy groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance, right-leaning policy groups such as Turning Point USA, LGBT-interest groups like the Trevor Project and Human Rights Campaign Foundation, environmentalist groups like Grist and the American Conservation Coalition, and the libertarian Reason Foundation. ³⁴

Background

The Conru Foundation was founded in 2017 by Andrew Conru, a mechanical engineer who founded Friend Finder Network and a dozen other firms. ⁵ Conru Foundation absorbed a previous private foundation created by Conru, the Furnessville Foundation, which had been created in 2005.⁶⁷

Leadership

The Conru Foundation’s 2023 tax return lists Andrew Conru as chairman, president, vice president and treasurer and Jonathan Buckheit as secretary.⁸

Andrew Conru graduated from Stanford University with a PhD in mechanical engineering design in 1992. He created several internet applications for e-commerce, advertising, online dating, and real-time website customization technologies. He founded several companies including Internet Media Services, W3, Medley.com Ad Agency, and a series of online dating sites known as FriendFinder Networks.¹ FriendFinder Networks is composed of several adult sites, most notably AdultFriendFinder.com.⁹

Jonathan Buckheit received a PhD from Standford University. He founded Yield Dynamics in 1997 and was CEO of FriendFinder Networks from 2015 through 2024.¹⁰

Grantmaking

In 2021, Conru Foundation made grants totaling $1,782,875. Its largest contributions were given to environmental and social research groups, including $200,000 to American Conservation Coalition, $200,000 to Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, $200,000 to Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, $150,000 to Empowered Pathways, and $110,000 to The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy. Additional donations were given to Center for Immigration Studies, Drug Policy Alliance, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Grist Magazine, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Media Research Center, Post Carbon Institute, Trevor Project, Turning Point USA, World Affairs Council, and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.³

On its website, Conru Foundation lists a number of grant recipients from “the past couple of years,” including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Pineapple Support Society, and Doctors Without Borders, among other groups.⁴

Right-Leaning Grants

From 2019 through 2020, the Conru Foundation gave total donations of $60,000 to the American Enterprise Institute. Between 2019 and 2021, the Conru Foundation gave total donations of $150,000 to Turning Point USA and $35,000 to Media Research Center. ¹¹

Left-Leaning Policy Grants

From 2019 to 2021, the Conru Foundation gave total donations of $35,000 to the Drug Policy Alliance. Between 2020 and 2021, the foundation gave donations of $50,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ¹¹

Libertarian Grants

From 2019 through 2021, the Conru Foundation gave total donations of $50,000 to the Reason Foundation. ¹¹

Population Control Grants

In 2020 and 2021, the foundation gave donations to advocacy groups linked to the population control movement. ¹² They made donations of $100,000 to the environmentalist group Post Carbon Institute and $50,000 to the immigration-restriction group Center for Immigration Studies. ¹¹