Forsythia Foundation

Background

Alison Carlson, the wife of financier John Burbank, created Forsythia Foundation. Carlson became an environmentalist activist after undergoing fertility problems which may have been connected to environmental pollutants. In 2003, Carlson became a senior fellow for the Commonweal Institute’s Collaborative on Health and the Environment where she organized research efforts into environmental contaminants that have negative effects on reproductive health. The program would eventually evolve into the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). ^{3 4}

In 2007, Carlson and her husband founded the Passport Foundation, a grantmaking foundation targeting environmentalist causes, with an endowment of $30 million. ⁵

Grants

The Forsythia Foundation has donated to left-of-center environmentalist and higher-education organizations. In 2019, Forsythia donated $1,097,000. The largest recipient was UCSF which received $250,000. Other grants went to Consumer Reports for $100,000, the Healthy Building Network for $100,000, Earthjustice for $90,000, the Center for Environmental Health for $75,000, the Environmental Working Group $50,000, the Green Science Policy Institute for $50,000, the Commonweal Institute for $30,000, the Environmental Health Strategy Center $25,000, and the Upstream Policy Institute for $2,000. ⁶

In 2019, Forsythia gave $200,000 to Resolve Inc. to advocate for new food chemical standards at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Forsythia gave Toxic-Free Future $50,000 to support a multi-state municipal government agreement regarding pollution. ⁶

The Forsythia Foundation and the Passport Foundation funded numerous organizations that provided financing for Dark Waters, a Hollywood eco-thriller starring Mark Ruffalo. ⁵

Leadership

Shelley is executive director of the Forsythia Foundation as of 2023. In 2023, she received $151,200 in compensation. ⁷ Prior to Forsythia, Hearne worked at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Charitable Trusts, and Trust for America’s Health. ^{8 9}

In 2013, Hearne became a principal at Thinkwell Strategies, a consulting group, and she has remained at Thinkwell ever since. According to her LinkedIn profile, through her role as principal of Thinkwell Hearne is “part time executive director of Forsythia Foundation. ⁹