The Grover Hermann Foundation was the private foundation of former Martin Marietta chairman Grover Hermann. It supported center-right nonprofits and made grants to universities until it liquidated itself in 2019.

Background

Grover N. Hermann was chairman of the board of Martin Marietta, a defense industry manufacture that has since merged into Lockheed Martin. When Hermann died in 1979, the Philanthropy Roundtable reports, his widow worked with the foundation’s trustees to insert “a preamble to the foundation’s bylaws that memorialized Hermann’s life and accomplishments, his values and philosophical outlook, the specific intentions of the foundation, and the foundation’s specific areas of interest.” ¹

Grantmaking

The Hermann Foundation began to donate to center-right nonprofits in the 1980s. It endowed a fellowship in federal budgetary affairs at the Heritage Foundation. In 1988, this position was held by Stephen Moore. ² In 1989, the foundation donated $1 million to Heritage to partially endow the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy, a position which has been held since 1988 by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III. ³

The foundation also contributed to the American Spectator.  In 1990 the foundation was listed as a member of the magazine’s “advisory group,” the magazine’s highest level of donations, along with the Bradley, Adolph Coors, John W. Hanes, Noble, Olin, Romill, and Sarah Scaife Foundations and the J. Howard Pew Freedom Trust. ⁴

In 1994, the foundation donated $300,000 to Eureka College, former President Ronald Reagan’s alma mater, to install a permanent exhibit of memorabilia about Reagan, including a paper he wrote in college, the robe he wore in the 1957 ceremony where the college gave Reagan a doctorate, and a t-shirt saying, “Don’t put the economy on the Fritz.  Vote Reagan in ’84.” ⁵

The Hermann Foundation endowed at least two university chairs; a chair in international business management at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, a division of Middlebury College, ⁶ and a chair of health sciences and technology at MIT. ⁷  In addition, in 1964 Hermann personally donated $1.5 million to MIT for a new building. ⁸

Termination

In 2015, the Grover Hermann Foundation made $1.5 million in grants, of which the three largest were $315,500 to the Heritage Foundation, $100,000 to the Institute for Justice, and $75,000 to Alice Lloyd College. ⁹

In 2018 the foundation announced it was liquidating and distributed $24.2 million in grants. ¹⁰ These included $5 million to Alice Lloyd College for a dormitory, $5 million to the Heritage foundation to establish the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, ¹¹ $1 million to the American Enterprise Institute for its program of training college students and “mid-career leaders,” ¹² $1 million to the Institute for Justice for research on occupational licensing, and $1 million to the Big Shoulders Fund for scholarships. ¹³

1. “Recovering Donor Intent If It’s Lost,” Philanthropy Roundtable., https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/resource/recovering-donor-intent-if-its-lost/ (accessed March 18, 2022)
2. Stephen Moore, “Bush May Get Last Laugh With ‘Points of Light,’” Orlando Sentinel, December 4, 1988.
3. “Reagan Fellowship Is Unveiled,” Associated Press, March 27, 1989.
4. ^[1] “President George Bush Meets the Washington Club,” The American Spectator, November 1990.
5.  Randy Gleason. “Reagan Exhibit Opening to Public at Eureka College,” Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph, May 4, 1994.
6. ^[1] Eva Gudbergsdottir, “Max Troyer Appointed to Grover M. Herrmann Chair for International Business Management,” press release from Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey, October 6, 2020, https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/news/max-troyer-appointed-grover-m-hermann-chair-international-business-management (accessed March 17, 2022)
7. ^[1] “Faculty Named to Professorships,” press release from MIT, November 2, 2005,
8. Grover M. Hermann Building,” press release from MIT, March 7, 1964. https://libraries.mit.edu/app/dissemination/DIPonline/AC0069_NewReleases/NewsRelease_1960/AC0069_1964/AC0069_196403_027.pdf .  Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. personally contributed $1 million to the building project.
9. Grover Hermann Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2015 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/366064489/2016_06_PF%2F36-6064489_990PF_201512
10. Grover Hermann Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Part I Line 25. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/366064489/03_2019_prefixes_35-36%2F366064489_201812_990PF_2019032716196231
11. “Heritage foundation Launches Grover M. Hermann center for The Federal Budget,” press release from Heritage foundation, September 14, 2018
12. “AEI Receives a One Million Dollar Grant from The Grover Hermann Foundation,” press release from the American Enterprise Institute, November 14, 2018,
13. Grover Hermann Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2018, Part XV Line 3 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/366064489/03_2019_prefixes_35-36%2F366064489_201812_990PF_2019032716196231