Lily Auchincloss Foundation

History

The Foundation was “formed in 1997 in order to continue the charitable legacy of Lily Auchincloss and her life-long devotion to arts and culture in New York City.” Its president is Alexandra A. Herzan, Lily Auchincloss’ daughter. ^{1 2}

Lily Auchincloss was a major donor to the Museum of Modern Art, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the American Academy in Rome. She was a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art for 25 years until her death in 1996, serving on one-third of the Museum’s committees and financing many of its exhibitions of contemporary art and architecture. Her father, Arnold Louis van Ameringen, founded the International Flavors and Fragrances Company, and endowed the Van Ameringen Foundation, a prominent New York City mental health philanthropy. Her mother, Hedwig Pfaltz van Ameringen, was one of the top supporters of the New York Philharmonic. ³

Grantmaking

The Lily Auchincloss Foundation proclaims that it funds organizations working in the arts, environment, and human services that improve the quality of life of New York City residents through “prevention, change and education.” It distributes financial support through grants and discretionary awards. ¹

The majority of the Foundation’s giving is to environmental and human services organizations rather than the arts. In 2023, it conferred 90 grants and 11 discretionary awards for a total of $2,358,001 in funding. Amounts ranged from $3,000 to $100,000. None of the 2023 grants were given to arts organizations. Sixty-one per cent (55 grants) went to environmental organizations and 39 percent (35 grants) to human services nonprofits including Fountain House, a mental health provider which received $50,000, and Riverkeeper, an activist environmental organization dedicated to protecting the Hudson River watershed whose highest profile figure was until recently Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Riverkeeper received $100,000, the largest grant conferred by the Foundation in 2023. ^{4 5}

Eleven discretionary awards funded two environmental funder collaboratives dedicated to open space and environmental preservation, one human services organization, and seven arts organizations, only one of these in visual art and none in music. The foundation allocated its largest discretionary award, $50,000, to an environmental funder collaborative. Arts funding averaged $5,000 to each arts organization. The human services discretionary award was in the amount of $10,000. ⁵

Leadership

Alexandra A. Herzan is a Director of International Flavors and Fragrances, the company founded by her grandfather, and a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, Fountain House, the van Ameringen Foundation, and Riverkeeper. She is a licensed clinical social worker who worked for many years with homebound elderly in the Bronx. ^{2 6}