Founded in 1981 by Maryanne Mott and Herman Warsh, the CS Fund is a private family foundation which conducts grantmaking activates as it relates to three designated program areas: emerging technologies, food sovereignty, and rghts and governance. ¹ Despite an official designation which establishes each as a legally distinct entity, the CS Fund is closely affiliated with two other grantmaking organizations, the Warsh-Mott Legacy and the Marin Community Foundation. ² The Marin Community Foundation serves as the sponsoring organization for the donor-advised TOP Fund, which is collectively advised by the boards of directors of both the CS Fund and Warsh-Mott Legacy. ³

The organization funds a number of left-of-center advocacy nonprofits including American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, Friends of the Earth, and Ceres.

Personnel

The Board of Directors of the CS Fund, a private family foundation founded in 1981 by Maryanne Mott and Herman Warsh, is comprised of the following members: Kau’i Keliipio; Corinne Meadows-Efram; Maryanne Mott; Teresa Robinson; Marise M. M. Stewart; Herman Warsh, in memory; and Michael Warsh. ⁴ The Fund’s day-to-day operations are directed by the following members of staff: Bailey Malone (executive director), Melanie Adcock (program director for food sovereignty), Rose Cohen (grants administrator), Shorey Myers (program consultant for emerging technologies), and Amanda Solter (program officer for rights and governance). ⁵

Grantmaking

The CS Fund is a private family foundation which conducts grantmaking activates as it relates to three designated program areas: emerging technologies, food sovereignty, and rights and governance. ⁶ Additional programmatic themes include environmentalism and “issues not widely recognized or supported by civil society and the general public.” ⁷

Emerging Technologies

Grantmaking in “emerging technology” is focused on developments across the following three specializations: nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and geoengineering. ⁸ Grantees in this area include Friends of the Earth, a prominent environmentalist group. ⁹ The CS Fund has awarded a total of $145,000 to Friends of the Earth US since 2014. ¹⁰ Friends of the Earth US’s published position papers’ explicitly state their support for several key items of the left-wing legislative agenda amongst the stated ideal policy outcomes. ¹¹ These include support for the revocation of corporate personhood and repeal of the decision rendered by the U.S Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), repeal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), and mandating a federal $15 minimum wage. ¹²

Food Sovereignty

Grantmaking in this area is focused across the following areas of programmatic alignment: “preserving native and heirloom seeds,” “building healthy and fertile soils,” “and protecting and restoring the populations and diversity of native pollinators.” ¹³

Rights and Governance

Grantmaking in this area is focused across the following areas of programmatic alignment: open government; constitution and the courts, expressly defined by the Fund as countering “conservative and corporate influence” with left-wing jurisprudence; and dissent. ¹⁴ The Fund further cites trade as an additional area of programmatic interest within the realm of international governance. ¹⁵ Grantees in this area include the left-of-center American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and Constitutional Accountability Center. ¹⁶ The CS Fund has awarded both the American Constitution Society and Constitutional Accountability Center a total of $90,000 to advance a left-of-center interpretation of the U.S. Constitution since 2014. ¹⁷

1. Program Areas.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/program-areas/.
2. “About.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/about/.
3. “About.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/about/.
4. “About.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/about/.
5. “About.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/about/.
6. Program Areas.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/program-area
7. “CS Fund and Warsh • Mott Legacy.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/.
8. “Emerging Technologies.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/emerging-technologies/.
9. “Grants 2018.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/grants-2018/.
10. “Grants 2014.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/grants-2014/.
11. Friends of the Earth US. “Policies to Reduce Inequality, Check Corporate Power and Promote Economic Justice,” July 2019.
12. Friends of the Earth US. “Policies to Reduce Inequality, Check Corporate Power and Promote Economic Justice,” July 2019.
13. “Food Sovereignty.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/food-sovereignty/.­­­­­
14. “Rights & Governance.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/rights-governance/.
15. “Rights & Governance.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/rights-governance/.
16. “Grants 2018.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/grants-2018/.
17. “Grants 2014.” CS Fund. Accessed April 25, 2020. http://csfund.org/grants-2014/.