The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (EMKF) is a major philanthropic foundation primarily focused in the Kansas City area. EMKF funds some left-of-center groups and a few right-of-center groups, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute. EMKF has more than $2.5 billion in assets. ¹

The EMKF supports government measures to implement diversity, equity, and inclusion in the economy, including the creation of “baby bonds” weighted by wealth to reduce the black-white wealth gap.

History

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was founded in the mid-1960s ² by billionaire Ewing Kauffman, an entrepreneur best known for founding Marion Laboratories which would eventually become Marrion Merrell Dow. Kauffman also founded the Kansas City Royals baseball team. ³

Activity

Most Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation grants go to entrepreneurship, education, and support for low-income individuals in the Kansas City area. For instance, in 1988, the organization created Project Choice to lower the high school dropout rate for low-income Kansas City children by offering scholarships to cover their full college tuition. The program has continued to operate to the present. ⁴

EMKF has given funding to numerous left-of-center organizations, including National Public Radio, the New America Foundation, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the African American Mayors Association, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and UnidosUS. ⁵

EMKF occasionally gives grants to right-of-center and libertarian organizations to promote entrepreneurialism, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Institute for Justice, and the Federalist Society. ⁶

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

In an interview, former Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation president Wendy Guillies said, “the principles of equity and diversity and inclusion are embedded throughout our work.” ⁷

EMKF promotes “inclusive prosperity through entrepreneurialism.” Most of its programs have an emphasis on supporting non-white entrepreneurs whom EMKF claims have less access to debt or capital to start their businesses. ⁸

In March 2022, EMKF’s president at the time, Wendy Guillies, announced a new set of priorities for the organization based on combatting inequality through “a lens of racial equity, diversity, and inclusion.” ⁹

The EMKF’s blog, Currents, includes numerous articles on promoting black-owned businesses and black entrepreneurs. ¹⁰

EMFK runs the Kaufman Fellows program, which supports entrepreneurs and provides financial support to venture capital funds which promote ethnic and racial minority employees. ¹¹

In 2021, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation released the America’s New Business Plan for the Start Us Up Coalition. The plan is a set of policy proposals designed to reduce income and racial inequality, including having the government provide universal access to broadband connections, and invest in black-owned businesses. The plan also advocates that the government create “baby bonds,” savings accounts established at birth which would accrue interest and provide an asset base for individuals when they become adults. The baby bonds would be established at different sizes depending on the wealth of the child’s parents; poorer children would get more money. EWKF claimed that such a policy would reduce the black-white wealth gap in the long run. ¹²

Controversy

In 1992, entrepreneur Carl Schramm became president of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and presided over a tumultuous decade. Schramm was the first leader of the EMKF who had not been associated with Ewing Kauffman and was seen by many within the organization as an opportunist outsider. One year after his arrival, he was nearly removed by the board for supposedly abandoning the priorities of existing donors by refocusing the organization away from Kansas City in favor of attracting more national attention and prestige as a major nonprofit foundation (at the time, the EMKF was the 27^th-largest foundation in the United States). ¹³

Then-Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon (D) launched an investigation into the foundation’s board over allegations that Schramm had made an illicit deal with a board member to keep his support. ¹⁴ In 2004, the AG made formal suggestions to the EMKF to reform its governance to prevent conflicts of interest and lessen the powers of its president, but the AG did not find any evidence of wrongdoing between Schramm and the board member. ¹⁵

Leadership

President & CEO

Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace serves as president and CEO of EMFK, as of 2024. Prior to this position, she served as the Secretary of Administration and the Chief Information Technology Officer for the State of Kansas. Beforehand, she spent up to 15 years within the higher education field: she served as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at the University of Kansas, Assistant Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education and Assistant Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at the University of Missouri, and as Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Stanford University. In addition, she previously worked as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. In 2020 she was elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees, and also serves on the boards of other educational institutions including the College Board and Heart of Missouri United Way. She is a member of other philanthropic organizations including Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority Inc., the Johnson County Chapter of the Jack and Jill of America Foundation, and The Sister Circle. She was also elected as a lifetime member to think tank Council on Foreign Relations. ¹⁶

Senior Leadership

In March 2024, EMFK announced three new executive leadership positions to focus on “Program Strategy; Research, Learning, and Evaluation; and Community Engagement:” ¹⁷

Allison Greenwood Bajracharya is the upcoming Vice President of Program Strategy for EMFK starting in April 2024. According to the website, the new position will manage “strategies, results, and performance indicators for the Foundation’s programmatic grantmaking and initiatives.” ¹⁸ Her previous work experience includes serving as chief strategy and communities officer for nonprofit group America Archives, the chief operations and strategy officer for Camino Nuevo Charter Academy in Los Angeles, CA, and working as a high school teacher in New Orleans, LA through the teacher placement program Teach for America. She also sits on the board for United Parents and Students and the LA branch of Teach for America. ¹⁹

Yvonne Owens Ferguson, Ph.D., M.P.H. will serve as the upcoming Vice President of Research, Learning, and Evaluation. She previously worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the program leader for its Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) program. ^{20 21} Beforehand, she served in several positions with the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS) including Public Health Analyst (2010-2013) and a Service Fellow (1999-2001), and worked as a research assistant and later W.K. Kellogg Health Scholar for the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. ^{22 23}

Gloria Jackson-Leathers will serve as Senior Advisor to the President, Dr. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, on Community Engagement. Her pervious experience includes serving as a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City as well as a community reinvestment act officer with the Commerce Bank of Kansas City. ²⁴

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2. “Kauffman Foundation.” Crunchbase. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/kauffman-foundation.
3. Pace, Eric. “Ewing M. Kauffman, 76, Owner of Kansas City Baseball Team.” The New York Times. August 2, 1993. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/02/obituaries/ewing-m-kauffman-76-owner-of-kansas-city-baseball-team.html.
4. Polin, Jane L. “A Regional Approach to Prosperity for All.” Candid. October 14, 2019. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://learningforfunders.candid.org/content/case-studies/a-regional-approach-to-prosperity-for-all/.
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6. “Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.” Foundation Center. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://maps.foundationcenter.org/#/list/?subjects=all&popgroups=all&years=all&location=6252001&excludeLocation=0&geoScale=ADM0&layer=recip&boundingBox=-188.7890625,-66.65297740055277,189.140625,76.10079606754579&gmOrgs=all&recipOrgs=all&tags=all&keywords=&pathwaysOrg=&pathwaysType=&acct=democracy&typesOfSupport=all&transactionTypes=all&amtRanges=all&minGrantAmt=0&maxGrantAmt=0&gmTypes=all&minAssetsAmt=0&maxAssetsAmt=0&minGivingAmt=0&maxGivingAmt=0&andOr=0&includeGov=1&custom=all&customArea=all&indicator=&dataSource=oecd&chartType=facets&multiSubject=1&listType=gm&windRoseAnd=undefined&zoom=0.
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10. “Currents.” Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.kauffman.org/currents/.
11.  Shieber, Jonathan. “As venture firms struggle with diversity, the Kauffman Fellows program is grooming candidates to help.” Tech Crunch. June 16, 2020. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/16/as-venture-firms-struggle-with-diversity-the-kauffman-foundation-is-grooming-candidates-to-help/.
12. “Kauffman Foundation’s new plan for American entrepreneurs demands inclusive growth.” Startland News. March 2, 2021. Accessed May 4, 2022. https://www.startlandnews.com/2021/03/kauffman-foundation-americas-new-business-plan/.
13. Strom, Stephanie. “Uproar in Kansas City Over Foundation Chief.” The New York Times. October 20, 2003. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/20/us/uproar-in-kansas-city-over-foundation-chief.html.
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15. ^[1] Strom, Stephanie. “Missouri Tells Charity to Change.” The New York Times. March 5, 2004. Accessed May 3, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/us/missouri-tells-charity-to-change.html.
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