The Foundation for a Better Life is a 501(c)(3) operating foundation that makes public service announcements, including billboards and television commercials, that feature “positive human values.” Although the performers and songwriters whose work are featured in the Foundation for a Better Life’s public service announcements often donate their fees, the foundation’s sole funder is the Anschutz Foundation of conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz.

Background

The Foundation for a Better Life creates public service announcements that “celebrate common-sense values—the kind of bedrock principles so foundational; that they often get lost in the shuffle. Concepts such as ‘respect,’ ‘service,’ and ‘leadership.’” As of 2009, it produced television commercials and between 10,000 and 12,000 billboards in the U.S. ¹

Philip Anschutz told Philanthropy that he hoped the messages in the advertisements produced by the Foundation were seen by billions of people, “and if you assume there is a take rate, then you logically assume there is a retention rate. All that matters is that people absorb the ideas, that it will positively affect how they (viewers) conduct themselves in our society, and they will be open to sharing them (the advertisements) with others.” ²

In a 2019 interview, foundation president Gary Dixon said the billboards the organization produced provided “life-affirming messages that inspire and uplift people in each city where they are posted.  We do not participate in fundraising and are nonpartisan.” ³

Funding

In 2019, the Anschutz Foundation gave the Foundation for a Better Life 11 grants totaling $1.1 million and an additional $1.7 million for general operating support. ⁴

1. Jonathan V. Last, “Pass It On,” Philanthropy, Fall 2009, https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/docs/default-source/magazine/pass-it-on.pdf?sfvrsn=32b2a540_4 (accessed September 16, 2021)
2. Jonathan V. Last, “Pass It On,” Philanthropy, Fall 2009, https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/docs/default-source/magazine/pass-it-on.pdf?sfvrsn=32b2a540_4 (accessed September 16, 2021)
3. “Pass it On!” Billboard Insider, June 21, 2019, https://www.billboardinsider.com/pass-it-on/ (accessed September 16, 2021)
4. 2019 Anschutz Foundation Form 990.