The Edward W. Hazen Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking foundation that supports and organizes youth activists on issues related to public education,¹ race, and class. ²³⁴

The foundation supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement,⁵ calls critical race theory (a left-wing approach to studying race that alleges the history of the United States can be entirely explained by racial oppression) “essential,”⁶ supports “police free schools,” ^{7 8} has labeled police officers a “threat to kids in school,”⁹ calls the U.S. citizenship test an “unnecessary burden” on those seeking U.S. citizenship,¹⁰ and has claimed school segregation is “not a thing of the past.” ¹¹

From 2019 to 2020, the foundation distributed $5.9 million in grants to left-of-center and far-left organizations. ¹² Grant recipients have included Khmer Girls in Action, Youth United for Community Action, the Chinese Progressive Association, Youth Justice Coalition, Communities United, Alliance for Youth Organizing, Center for Civic Policy, Power California, California Native Vote, Movement Strategy Center’s Urban Peace Movement, Labor Community Strategy Center, Voces de la Frontera, SouthWest Organizing Project,¹³ and New Venture Fund’s Communities for Just Schools Fund. The foundation plans to spend down and distribute all its assets by 2024. ¹⁴

History and Leadership

The Edward W. Hazen Foundation was founded in 1925. ¹⁵ In 2009, the foundation shifted its mission to focus on race¹⁶ and established a new initiative to fund “racial justice organizing”¹⁷ projects related to policing and education. ¹⁸ It has committed to distributing all of its assets by 2024. ¹⁹

Lori Bezahler is president of EWHF. ²⁰ She also chairs the board of the left-progressive identity politics organization Race Forward. ²¹ Bezahler has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),²² has claimed charter schools “perpetuate structural inequity” in school systems,²³ and supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement. ²⁴

Christina Jiminez chairs EWHF’s board of trustees and is the co-founder and director of the left-of-center immigration activist organization United We Dream. ²⁵

Activities

The Edward W. Hazen Foundation is a grantmaking organization which distributes grants to organizations which support youth activists and are public education,²⁶ race, and class issues. ^{27 28 29} On its Twitter page, the foundation supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement,³⁰ calls critical race theory “essential,” ³¹ supports “police free schools,” ^{32 33} has labeled police officers a “threat to kids in school,”³⁴ calls the U.S. citizenship test an “unnecessary burden” on those seeking U.S. citizenship,³⁵ and has claimed school segregation is “not a thing of the past.” ³⁶ The foundation also supports “culturally responsive” curriculums in school³⁷ and supports amnesty for the so-called “DREAMers,” illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. ³⁸

Grantmaking

In 2020, EWHF distributed $3,650,000 in trustee grants,³⁹ including $2.8 million in fast-track grants to 24 organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ⁴⁰ Its 2020 Spring Docket included at least seventeen multi-year grants which will continue into 2021. ⁴¹ The foundation’s 2020 spending represented a five-fold increase from 2019 and is in line with the foundation’s plan to distribute all its assets by 2024. ⁴²

In 2020, the Hazen Foundation approved 28 trustee grants worth over $1.5 million. ⁴³ Those grants included $100,000 each to Khmer Girls in Action, Youth United for Community Action, the Chinese Progressive Association, and Innercity Struggle; $75,000 each to Youth Justice Coalition, Black Organizing Project, Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education (CADRE), Communities United, and Padres y Jovenes Unidos; $50,000 each to Gente Organizada, Gender and Sexualities Alliance Network, Alliance for Youth Organizing, and Center for Civic Policy.

That same year, the foundation issued one-year grants of $25,000 each to Poder in Action, Power California, California Native Vote, left-wing Movement Strategy Center’s Urban Peace Movement, Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality, TODEC Legal Center Press, radical-left Labor Community Strategy Center, Southside Together Organizing for Power, SouthWest Organizing Project, and Voces de la Frontera, which has promoted drivers licenses for illegal immigrants in Wisconsin. ^{44 45}

Its National Grants include $100,000 each to Funders Collaborate on Youth Organizing (sponsored by Bend the Arc – A Jewish Partnership for Justice); $75,000 each to Journey for Justice Alliance, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization; $25,000 each to Partnership for the Future of Learning, National Public Education Support Fund; radical-left School of Unity and Liberation; and the Visionary Freedom Fund (sponsored by Common Counsel Foundation). ⁴⁶

Second-year payments of 2019 grants in 2020 included $125,000 each to Arkansas Public Policy Panel, Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, Youth on Board, and Youth United for Change; $100,000 each to the Philadelphia Student Union, Tunica Teens in Action, and Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing; $75,000 each to Alliance for Quality Education (Public Policy and Education Fund of New York), New Settlement Parent Action Committee, Power U Center for Social Change, and the Center for Popular Democracy’s One PA program,⁴⁷ which was involved in the “Count Every Vote” campaign in Philadelphia in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. ⁴⁸⁴⁹

In 2019, the Hazen Foundation distributed a total of $2,250,000 in grants. ⁵⁰ Grants included $125,000 each to Youth United for Change and Youth Build USA’s Youth On Board; $100,000 each to Bend the Arc’s Funders Collaborative on Youth Organizing and National Economic and Social Rights Initiative; $75,000 each to the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition’s Sistas and Brothas United, One PA Program, and Public Policy and Education Fund of New York’s Alliance for Quality Education; $50,000 each to the Chinese Progressive Association for Grassroots Asians Rising National and left-of-center New Venture Fund’s Communities for Just Schools Fund; $25,000 each to Youth Justice Coalition, Voces de la Frontera, SouthWest Organizing Project,  Communities United, and the radical-left Labor Community Strategy Center. ⁵¹

Funding

The Edward W. Hazen Foundation does not receive contributions, grants, or gifts. ⁵² It is funded by an endowment with a value of approximately $30,000,000. ⁵³

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45. Lieffring, Christina. “Driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants gains more support in Racine.” The Journal Times. January 11, 2019. Accessed July 30, 2021. https://journaltimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/driver-s-licenses-for-undocumented-immigrants-gains-more-support-in/article_4bc61da6-aa66-5339-b192-34bfb1002c98.html.
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