The Goatie Foundation is a private foundation established in 2001 in Brooklyn, Ohio. ¹ The Goatie Foundation makes grants to education and the arts, and to left-of-center environmentalist groups including the Greenpeace Fund, the National Audubon Society, Earthjustice, and The Nature Conservancy. ²

Background

The Goatie Foundation is a private foundation established in 2001 in Brooklyn, Ohio. It has no social media presence and the foundation’s tax returns show that Key Private Bank NA is its trustee and that the organization has no employees. ¹ The Goatie Foundation makes grants to education and the arts, and to left-of-center environmentalist groups including the Greenpeace Fund, the National Audubon Society, Earthjustice, and The Nature Conservancy. ²

Funders

The Goatie Foundation’s tax returns consistently show the Women’s Project Foundation as its source of funding, with small contributions from Louise Gund. ³

The Women’s Project Foundation was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1986 to support projects that benefit women and children. ⁴ Its 2023 tax return reported Key Private Bank as its trustee with no named officers, directors, or employees and total net assets of over $8 million. ⁵ Prior tax returns for the Women’s Project Foundation report that the sole contributor to the foundation is Louise Gund. Her contributions were all from the sale of Kellogg stock. ⁶

Louise Gund describes herself as a Broadway producer and environmental activist living in the San Francisco Bay area of California. ⁷ Her father, George Gund Jr., sold his family brewery during Prohibition and bought decaffeinated coffee maker Sanka. In 1927 he sold Sanka for shares in Kellogg’s. He was a real estate investor and banker. He passed away in 1966 leaving his family a 9 percent share of Kellogg’s. In 2015, the Gund family’s estimated worth was $3.4 billion. ⁸ Gund is a consistent political donor. In 2024, she donated $200,000 to the  Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $100,000 to the Lincoln Project, a super PAC opposed to the reelection of President Donald Trump and Republican Party candidates, and smaller amounts to the Democratic parties of nearly every state. ^{9 10} Gund is on the boards of Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the San Francisco Opera and is an honorary life trustee of Earthjustice, a law firm that works on behalf of the environment. ¹¹

Grantmaking

The Goatie Foundation’s 2023 grants totaled $2.48 million. Approximately $1.8 million was awarded to education and the arts with the rest going mainly to environmental groups. ¹²

Since 2010, the foundation has consistently contributed to several left-of-center environmentalist organizations and environmental legal advocacy groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Earthjustice, Ecojustice, the Greenpeace Fund, the National Audubon Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. ²

Since 2010, the Goatie Foundation has consistently contributed to the Ploughshares Fund, ² an anti-nuclear proliferation organization that supports left-of-center groups including the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Federation of American Scientists, MoveOn.org Civic Action, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. ¹³

Since 2018, the Goatie Foundation has donated to feminist organization Ms. Foundation for Women, ² which focuses on promoting political leadership by women and girls of color. ¹⁴

In 2015 the Goatie Foundation awarded a 5-year grant to the Clinton Foundation, ² a global philanthropic foundation established by former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea Clinton. ¹⁵

1. The Goatie Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part VII). 2023.
2. “Goatee Foundation TA TR 990 Report.” Instrumentl Foundation Directory. Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/goatee-foundation-t-a-tr
3. The Goatie Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Schedule B). 2023.
4. “Women’s Project Foundation.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/womens-project-foundation
5. Womens Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part II, Part VII). 2023.
6. Womens Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Schedule B.) 2018, 2019, 2020.
7.  LinkedIn – Louise Gund. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisegund/
8. “Gund family.” Forbes profile. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/profile/gund/?ctpv=searchpage
9. The Lincoln Project homepage. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://lincolnproject.us/
10. “Louise Gund.” OpenSecrets donors. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=louise+gund&sort=D&type=donors
11. “About Louise Gund.” Louise Gund. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://louisegund.com/about-louise-gund/
12. The Goatie Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part XIV). 2023.
13. “Our Grantees.” Ploughshares. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://ploughshares.org/grants/grantees/
14. Ms. Foundation for Women homepage. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://forwomen.org/
15.  Clinton Foundation homepage. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://www.clintonfoundation.org/