The Kohlberg Foundation is a private family foundation founded by private equity billionaire Jerome Kohlberg and his wife Nancy in 1989, based in Mt. Kisco, New York. The foundation provides grants to numerous left-of-center organizations, focused on legal policy related to health programs, the environment, and education. [1] In 2017, the Kohlberg Foundation granted nearly $80 million. [2]
Background
Jerome Kohlberg, the cofounder of the private equity firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts, and Company (KKR) and a pioneer of the leveraged buyout, formed the Kohlberg Foundation with his wife in 1989. [3].
At the age of 80, Kohlberg had a net worth of $1.2 billion. [4] Kohlberg died in 2015. [5]
Grantmaking Activity
While many of the Kohlberg Foundation’s grants go to local organizations in Westchester, New York, the foundation supports many left-of-center organizations affecting policy on a national level.
Legal Advocacy
The Kohlberg Foundation contributes millions of dollars to the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, a major liberal legal policy advocacy group, providing $3 million in support in 2017. [6] The foundation has also supported the Alliance for Justice, a legal policy organization that advocates against the nomination of conservative and Republican-appointed judges and in favor of left-wing and Democratic-appointed ones. [7]
Environmental Advocacy
The Kohlberg Foundation is a regular funder of local and national environmental groups concerned with global warming and environmentalist energy policies. Environmentalist groups receiving contributions from the foundation include the Environmental Defense Fund and the Center for Biological Diversity. [8]
Other Left-of-Center Policy
The Kohlberg Foundation makes grants to a number of general left-of-center advocacy organizations. In 2017, the Indivisible Fund, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, ProPublica, the Marshall Project, and Young Invincibles received support from Kohlberg Foundation. [9] In past years, it has provided seven-figure contributions to the assisted-dying advocacy group Compassion and Choices. [10]
Donation Recipients
- Alliance for Justice (AFJ)
- Arabella Legacy Fund
- Berkshire Natural Resource Council
- Bill Moyers Journal
- BiodiversityWorks
- Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)
- Center for Health and the Global Environment
- Center for Political Accountability
- Chewonki Foundation
- City Life/Vida Urbana (Urban Revival, Inc.)
- Climate Impact Lab
- Climate Response Fund
- Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
- Compassion and Choices
- Council on Foundations
- Drive Change
- Earth Island Institute
- Earthjustice (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund)
- EcoAmerica
- Economic Club of New York
- Educational Alliance
- Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
- Endangered Habitats League
- Energy Foundation
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
- Environmental Grantmakers Association
- Foundation Center
- Fractured Atlas Productions
- Franklin Land Trust
- Free Speech for People (Non-profit)
- Fund for Conductive Education (non-profit)
- Getting Out and Staying Out (GOSO)
- Global Greengrants Fund
- Hands Up for Haiti
- Heifer Foundation
- Hemlock Foundation
- Hope Enterprise Corporation
- Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison
- Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
- Human Rights First
- Independent Production Fund
- Indivisible Civics
- International Community Foundation (ICF)
- International Rule of Law Project (IROLP)
- Institute for Integrative Health
- Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
- Jane Goodall Institute
- JustLeadershipUSA
- Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- The Marshall Project
- Mass Audubon
- Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition
- Moyers on Democracy
- NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation
- National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP)
- National Parks Conservation Association
- Natural Resources Council of Maine
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
- New England Forestry Foundation
- New Jersey Conservation Foundation
- New York League of Conservation Voters
- Open Space Institute
- Oxfam America
- Pace Law School
- Partners in Health
- Partnership for Children’s Rights
- Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic
- ProPublica
- Population Council
- Progressive Voices Institute
- Proteus Fund
- Reinventing Schools Coalition
- Rocky Mountain Institute
- Schuster Institute for Investigative Reporting (Brandeis Univ)
- Schwab Charitable Fund
- Second Nature
- Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation
- Silent Spring Institute
- Slow Food USA
- Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs
- Surfrider Foundation
- Tides Center
- Trust for Public Land
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Waterkeeper Alliance
- Wildcoast
- William J. Brennan Center for Justice
- World Education, Inc.
- Young Invincibles
- Youth INC