The Frost Family Foundation is a left-of-center foundation led by ERGO Baby founder Karin Frost and headquartered in Hawaii that funds a variety of environmentalist and social issue-oriented campaigns and organizations with an emphasis on local organizations and programs in Hawaii. The company was founded in 2010 by Karin Frost after selling her company, ERGO Baby, a provider of baby products. Since 2012 the foundation states it has distributed over $3.5 million to organizations in Hawaii. The foundation’s funding areas include food and agriculture, environmentalism, women’s issues, and pre and post-natal care. ^{1 2}

Background

The Frost Family Foundation was formed in 2010 and funded with over $10 million resulting from the sale of ERGO Baby by its founder Karin Frost, a Maui, Hawaii resident. Frost founded ERGO Baby in 2003 to make backpack-style baby carriers similar to ones she made for herself as a new mother. She received $91 million from the sale after agreeing to sell 84% of the company to a private equity firm, Compass Diversified Holdings, a “firm that invests in mid-size businesses with attractive growth prospects.” ³

ERGO Baby set up its manufacturing in China and gained fame in 2007 when Parenting Magazine named the ERGO Baby Carrier one of its “Top 20 products in the past 20 years.” ⁴

Activity

The first grant paid by the Frost Family Foundation was for $369,000 to the Hawaii Community Foundation, which was provided as a general-purpose grant. ⁵ The Foundation’s website explains that the Foundation recruits a new small group of grantees annually and that grant applications are allowed by invitation only. ¹

The Foundation operates over $7.7 million in assets as of 2023 and states that it was an early adopter of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and partnered with Natural Investments to create an investment portfolio that avoids investment in fossil fuels and promotes left-of-center environmental policies in its asset allocation. ¹

Grantmaking

The Frost Family Foundation operates four major funding areas including environmental protection, food and agriculture, women’s leadership, and pre- and post-natal bonding and attachment. ⁶

Grantees of the foundation include the Auwahi Forest Restoration Project, Beyond Pesticides, Birthing a Nation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawaii, the Center for Food Safety, Civil Beat Honolulu, Elemental Excelerator, the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, the Hawaii Institute for Pacific Agriculture, Ma Ka Hana Ka ‘Ike, Mao Farms, the Pa’ia Youth and Cultural Center, the Pacific Birth Collective, the PonoGrown Farm Center, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, and Zero Waste Oahu. ¹

Policy Stances

The Frost Family Foundation is a supporter of the Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA), which promotes left-of-center and far-left environmental and other policy positions. HAPA hosted the Hawaii People’s Congress which in 2019 had the theme “Towards a Just Transition and the Green New Deal.” In addition, HAPA “engaged 20 other legislative-advocacy groups as part of the ‘Common Good Coalition,’ to prioritize bills that broadly ranged from social justice to environmental concerns and economic justice.” ⁷

Leadership

Karin Frost is the founder of the Frost Family Foundation, which she endowed and formed in 2010 after the sale of her company ERGO Baby. Frost received $91 million in the sale of her company to a private equity firm and provided around $10 million to the foundation. Frost also spent over $20 million building out a self-sufficient 183-acre retreat in Maui that she listed for sale in 2024 for $38 million. ^{8 4}

Ashley Lukens is the executive director of the Frost Family Foundation and works as an independent consultant based in Honolulu. She previously was a board member at ERGO Baby and worked at the Center for Food Safety. ⁹

1. “Home.” Frost Family Foundation. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.frostfamilyfoundation.org/home-1
2. “Grantees.” Frost Family Foundation. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.frostfamilyfoundation.org/fff-grantees
3. Gomes, Andrew. “Maui woman sells baby carrier company in $91 million deal.” Star Advertiser September 17, 2010. https://www.staradvertiser.com/2010/09/17/breaking-news/maui-woman-sells-baby-carrier-company-in-91-million-deal/.
4. Gomes, Andrew. “Maui woman sells baby carrier company in $91 million deal.” Honolulu Star Advertiser. September 17, 2010. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.staradvertiser.com/2010/09/17/breaking-news/maui-woman-sells-baby-carrier-company-in-91-million-deal/
5. Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF). Frost Family Foundation. 2012. 990. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/273374284/2012_11_PF%2F27-3374284_990PF_201208
6. “Funding Areas.” Frost Family Foundation. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.frostfamilyfoundation.org/funding-areas
7. “Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action.” Frost Family Foundation. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.frostfamilyfoundation.org/fff-grantees/hawaii-alliance-for-progressive-action-hapa
8. Ruhling, Nancy. “Ergobaby Founder Selling 183-Acre Maui Property for $38 Million.” Mansion Global. March 29, 2024. Accessed July 8, 2024. https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/ergobaby-founder-selling-183-acre-maui-property-for-38-million-5f08f578
9. “Ashley Lukens.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed July 8, 2024.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-lukens-phd-a09176a1/details/experience/