The Jaquelin Hume Foundation is a family foundation run by the descendants of food industry entrepreneur Jaquelin “Jack” Hume (1905-1991). With his brother William, Jack Hume created Basic Vegetable Products, which sold dried onions and garlic, and American Potato, which dried potatoes.

Hume was an active donor to Republican causes in the 1960s and 1970s and was a major donor to the campaigns of Ronald Reagan for governor of California in1968 and 1972 and for president in 1976. The Hume Foundation began supporting a variety of center-right nonprofits, but in recent years has concentrated on frequently non-ideological changes to education policy and practice.

Jaquelin H. Hume

In 1933, Jaquelin H. Hume and his brother, William Hume, founded Basic Vegetable Products, which became the nation’s second-largest seller of dried onions and garlic. The Humes founded a second company, American Potato, to sell dried potatoes.

In an oral history given to the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley in 1982, Hume said that he became a conservative after being “completely disillusioned” by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to run for a third term n 1940. “You could say my political conservatism dates from that election since I voted for Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936,” Hume said, adding that he also became a donor because he “was upset by the Roosevelt program which I thought was socializing many outcomes in our country.” ¹

Hume became a major donor to the Republican Party, supporting Ronald Reagan in his two campaigns for governor of California in 1962 and 1966 and in his 1976 presidential campaign. Hume was appointed chief of protocol for northern California when Reagan was governor of California. He served on the boards of the Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and was vice-chairman of the Asian Art Foundation. ²

In 1975 Hume founded the Center for Teaching Economics to improve the teaching of economics in secondary schools. The center is now a subsidiary of the Fund for American Studies. ³

Grantmaking

The Hume Foundation supported a variety of center-right political organizations.  In 1993, the Heritage Foundation listed both the Hume Foundation and Jaquelin Hume’s son and daughter-in-law Jerry and Patti Hume as “Founders,” donors of over $100,000 to the think tank. ⁴

In 2005, the Hume Foundation had $4.3 million in revenue, and made 65 grants totaling $6.4 million, with the largest grants being $1.9 million to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, $500,000 to the Foundation for Teaching Education, and $200,000 grants to the Association of American Educators, the California Academy of Sciences, Music Concourse Community Partners, and the San Francisco Symphony. ⁵

The Hume Foundation’s largest grant was made in 2013, when it gave $5 million to The Learning Accelerator (TLA), which promotes “blended learning,” or education that combines in-person and online instruction. The grant was part of a $100 million fundraising campaign that included a $750,000 grant from the Gates Foundation.  Hume Foundation president Jerry Hume said “this is the biggest grant the foundation made” and “the foundation considers TLA’s mission so critical” that they decided to promote the donation. ⁶

In 2019 the Hume Foundation made six grants, including four of over $100,000:  $250,000 to Learning Accelerator, $150,000 to the Hechinger Institute of Columbia University’s Teachers College and to Inacol, and $100,000 to Excelin-Edpo. ⁷

1. Republican Philosophy and Party Activism:  Oral History Transcript, Bancroft Library, University of California (Berkeley), https://archive.org/details/repphilosophy00morrrich/page/n39/mode/2up  (accessed June 30, 2021)
2. Bruce Lambert, “Jaquelin Hume, 86, Dried Food Producer and Philanthropist,” New York Times, October 4, 1991. Hume’s papers are at the Hoover Institution.  Biographical information about Hume can be found at the finding aid for these papers at the Online Archive of California, https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt696nf4mj/entire_text/  (accessed July 1, 2021)
3. “About FTE,” Foundation for Teaching Economics, https://www.fte.org/about-fte/ (accessed July 1, 2021)
4. Jeff Nesmith, “Heritage Foundation Stoking The Conservative Fires,” Austin American-Statesman, December 31, 1994.
5. Jaquelin Hume Foundation 2005 Form 990.
6. “Hume Foundation Awards $5 Million for Learning Accelerator,” Philanthropy News Digest, March 15, 2013. https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/hume-foundation-awards-5-million-to-learning-accelerator
7. 2019 Jaquelin Hume Foundation Form 990.