The Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund is a grantmaking organization created in 1995 by Laura and Gary Lauder. ¹ The organization receives large amounts of money from other grantmaking foundations including the John Pritzker Family Fund, Sarnat Hoffman Family Foundation, and Friend Family Foundation. ²

Laura Lauder has served on the board of directors for various nonprofit organizations and as of 2023 sat on the board of trustees at the Aspen Institute and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. ³

Background

The Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund, also known as the Laura and Gary Lauder Philanthropic Fund (LGLPF), is a venture philanthropy organization created in 1995 by Laura and Gary Lauder. Gary Lauder, who has been a venture capitalist since 1985, is also managing director of Lauder Partners LLC, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. The organization was established via the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund in San Francisco. ⁴

Funding

The Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund receives large amounts of funding from private grantmaking foundations. The organization received a total of $305,500 from the John Pritzker Family Fund in 2017, and another $270,000 in 2019. LGLPF received $765,000 from The Sarnat Hoffman Family Foundation in 2017 as part of an endowment fund and received $498,738 from the Mondry Cohen Family Foundation in 2018. ⁵

LGLPF received $850,000 from the Alfred and Hanna Fromm Foundation in 2019, as well as $100,000 from the Alpert and Alpert Foundation, $55,000 from the Dare Foundation, and $50,000 from the Rodan Family Foundation. ⁶

The organization received a substantial boost in grants in 2020. The Michelle and Robert Friend Foundation granted LGLPF $2,015,559 that year, the Friend Family Foundation granted a total of $2,100,000, and the Janie and Donald Friend Foundation granted $5,619,589 to LGLPF in 2020. ⁷

Grant Making

According to its website, the Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund has made grants to 101 organizations since its inception, in 1995, to 2018. Recipient organizations listed include National Public Radio, the Aspen Institute, Global Fund for Women, Sustainable Conservation, Council on Foreign Relations, and Union for Reform Judaism. ⁸

LGLPF has provided grants to left-of-center organizations including the Center for American Progress, a think tank with strong ties to the Democratic Party establishment, and Media Matters for America. ⁹

The Audacious Project is a project of the TED Foundation that funds organizations intended to catalyze positive large-scale social impacts. Many of the groups it funds have left-of-center policy goals, particularly related to environmentalism and social affairs. The Audacious Project names “Laura and Gary Lauder and Family” in its “partners and individuals” who have contributed to the project. ¹⁰

The ClimateWorks Foundation is a left-of-center “pass-through” funding entity that distributes funds from donors to environmentalist advocacy groups around the world. Many of these nonprofits lobby for emissions taxes, restricting coal use, international climate treaties with strict enforcement mechanisms, and diminishing the use of cars. The foundation listed “Laura and Gary Lauder and Family” on its funders list in its 2021 annual report. ^{11 12}

People

Laura Lauder, the current president of the Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund, has co-founded multiple projects and has sat on several non-profit organizations’ board of directors. Lauder co-founded the Center for Media and Democracy in Israel in 2019, DeLeT: Day School Teaching through Leadership in 2000, Jewish Teen Funders Network’s Foundation Board Incubator in 2012, and the Gap Year program at Duke University in 2018. ¹³

Lauder is the prior chair of the endowment committee and is as of 2023 a member of the endowment executive committee at the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of San Francisco, sits on the advisory board of the Service Year Alliance, sits on the board of trustees at the Aspen Institute, and has previously sat on the board of directors of the National Constitution Center, the National Public Radio Foundation, and Spark Networks. Laura Lauder is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. ¹⁴

1. “About Us.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy . Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/about/about-us/.
2. Rouse, Farrell. “Laura And Gary Lauder Family Foundation.” Instrumentl. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/laura-and-gary-lauder-family-founda-tion.
3. “Laura Lauder.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/about/bio/.
4. “About Us.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/about/about-us/.
5. Rouse, Farrell. “Laura And Gary Lauder Family Foundation.” Instrumentl. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/laura-and-gary-lauder-family-founda-tion.
6. Rouse, Farrell. “Laura And Gary Lauder Family Foundation.” Instrumentl. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/laura-and-gary-lauder-family-founda-tion.
7. Rouse, Farrell. “Laura And Gary Lauder Family Foundation.” Instrumentl. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/laura-and-gary-lauder-family-founda-tion.
8. “Grants.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/grants/.
9. “Grants.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/grants/.
10. “About.” The Audacious Project. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.audaciousproject.org/about.
11. “A Reaganite Entrepreneur’s Flawed Philanthropy.” Capital Research Center. January 1, 2013. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/a-reaganite-entrepreneurs-flawed-philanthropy/.
12. “Annual Report.” Climate Works. July 21, 2022. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.climateworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ClimateWorks-Foundation-2021-Annual-Report.pdf.
13. “Laura Lauder.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/about/bio/.
14. “Laura Lauder.” Laura and Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy. Accessed May 10, 2023. https://www.lauderfamilyfund.org/about/bio/.