The Mai Family Foundation is the private foundation of Vincent A. Mai, a South Africa-born investment banker who is the current chairman and CEO of Cranemere, LLC, a former employee of the leveraged buyout firm AEA Investors, and past managing director of Lehman Brothers. In 2017 the Mai Family Foundation had accumulated $19,070,482 by the end of the year, distributing $4,741,347 in grants. ¹

The Mai Foundation funded a number of left-of-center advocacy groups including Institute for New Economic Thinking, a left-of-center economic theory organization co-founded by George Soros; left-of-center legal policy think tank The Brennan Center for Justice; liberal internationalist foreign policy group International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ); left-of-center environmental group Echoing Green, and the media criticism group Media Matters for America (MMfA) founded by liberal operative David Brock.

Mai Family

Vincent A. Mai is currently the chairman and CEO of Cranemere, LLC, a private equity firm founded in 2012 specializing in investments of holdings in global middle-market companies. He was at the leveraged buyout firm AEA Investors from 1989 to 2011, before that he was a managing director of Lehman Brothers starting in 1976, and his first job was at the London based S.G. Warburg and Co., Ltd. in 1965. Vincent was born in South Africa and moved to the United States in 1965. ²

Mai runs the foundation with his family; his wife Anne is the foundation president, and his three children James, Rebecca, and Timothy Ma sit on the board of directors. ^{3 4}

James Mai runs Cornwall Capital Management LP, a firm he founded in 2010. ⁵ The firm was the model for the book (later made into a movie) The Big Short about how Cornwall Capital Management LP was able to exploit the sub-prime mortgage crisis and turn a $110,000 investment into $120 million. ⁶

Mai Family Foundation

The foundation has no website or publications about its mission or intentions, but IRS records indicate it was founded in 1997 by Vincent A. Mai with an initial $690,129 contribution. ⁷ Vincent was the sole contributor in 2004 with another $2,991,000, $2,310,910 in 2005, and $2,513,748 in 2006. James Mai later gave $7,639,000, his business partner Charles H. Ledley $2,083,000, Rebecca $5,556,000, and Timothy $5,556,000. ⁸ In 2017 the foundation had accumulated $19,070,482 by the end of the year, distributing $4,741,347 in grants. ⁹

Advocacy Funding

Mia Family Foundation makes a number of grants to left-of-center advocacy groups.

The Tobin Project

The Tobin Project is a left-leaning think tank that conducts a wide range of research on topics in four main areas, government and markets, institutions of democracy, economic inequality, and national security. ¹⁰ It has been the single largest grantee of the Mia Foundation as of 2017, receiving $1,750,000 from 2008 through 2017. ¹¹

William J. Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center for Justice (the Brennan Center) is a hybrid left-leaning think-tank and activist center housed by New York University Law School. ¹² The Mai Foundation has granted the Brenan Center $1,475,000 over the 2008-2017 period. ¹³ The Center pursues a left-wing issue agenda, supporting liberal activist policies on ethnic preferences, restrictions on political campaign speech, and protections for foreign terrorism suspects.

International Center for Transitional Justice

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) was created out of Vincent Mai’s homeland of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. ¹⁴ Vincent is a board member at ICTJ, and the Mai Family Foundation has been an avid funder of this organization since 2006, providing $1,460,000 as of 2017. ICTJ works with western governments, NGOs, and the United Nations to assist in prosecuting individuals and groups who have allegedly committed crimes against humanity in contemporary conflicts. ¹⁵

Echoing Green

Echoing Green is an advocacy organization that provides fellowships and funding to support environmentalist policies in the areas of economic development, racial relations, and gender equity. The Mai Family Foundation has granted Echoing Green $1,148,000 since its founding in 2011 to 2017. ¹⁶

Media Matters for America (MMfA)

As of 2017, the Mia Family Foundation has given $1,025,000 to the left-wing media criticism organization Media Matters for America (MMfA). ¹⁷ MMfA produces liberal talking points to influence media outlets, acts as a partisan fact-checker that frequently criticizes opinions of conservative commentators, and criticizes coverage of conservative policies that it deems insufficiently hostile. ¹⁸

Other Recipients

The Mia Foundation has funded many other left-of-center groups. The left-wing advocacy organization Center for American Progress (CAP) received $100,000 in 2017. People for the American Way, formed in 1981 by liberal Hollywood television producer Norman Lear to oppose Christian-conservative policies received $80,000 from 2014 to 2017. A total of $53,333 was awarded to the Green New Deal Coalition ally Mothers Out Front from 2016 to 2017. Gun control group Americans For Responsible Solutions Foundation received $100,000 in 2016 and 2017. Left-of-center criminal justice policy group Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana got $140,000 over three years starting in 2015. A group that organizes registration drives for numerous Democratic-leaning voting populations called the Voter Participation Center received $100,000 total in 2016 and 2017.

People

The president of the Mai Family Foundation is Anne Mai; Vincent A. Mai acts as the organization’s vice president. James Mai is a vice secretary and director alongside his brother Timothy and James Mai’s wife Chiara Mai; Chiara also serves as the secretary. Rebecca is the treasurer with her husband David Mitnick as vice treasurer. ¹⁹

1. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2017, Part I, Analysis of Revenue and Expenses 1-27, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987/201803179349101650/IRS990PF.
2. “Vincent A. Mai.” International Center for Transitional Justice, December 21, 2018. https://www.ictj.org/about/vincent-mai.
3. “Vincent A. Mai.” International Center for Transitional Justice, December 21, 2018. https://www.ictj.org/about/vincent-mai.
4. “990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2017, Part VIII, Information About Officers, Directors, Trustees, Foundation Managers, Highly Paid Employees, and Contractors, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987/201803179349101650/IRS990PF.”
5. Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Accessed October 18, 2019. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/6893829.
6. “Value Securities.” Value securities ‘ Interview with Michael Lewis. Accessed October 18, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20100721025052/http://michaelburry.com/2010/05/12/interview-with-michael-lewis.
7. guidestar.org. Accessed October 18, 2019. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/13-3915987.
8. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2003-2018, Part VIII, 1, (a) and (b), https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/271041109/201833049349100218/IRS990PF.
9. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2017, Part I, Analysis of Revenue and Expenses 1-27, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987/201803179349101650/IRS990PF.
10. “About.” The Tobin Project. Accessed October 18, 2019. https://tobinproject.org/about.
11. “990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2008-2017, Part XV, 3 Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987.”
12. Kroll, Alex J. “Dismantling Self-Government: The Brennan Center’s Election Fraud Offensive.” Capital Research Center. April 1, 2014, Accessed July 31, 2017. https://capitalresearch.org/article/dismantling-self-government-the-brennan-centers-election-fraud-offensive/
13. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2008-2017, Part XV, 3 Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987.
14. “Vincent A. Mai.” International Center for Transitional Justice, December 21, 2018. https://www.ictj.org/about/vincent-mai.
15. “About the International Center for Transitional Justice.” International Center for Transitional Justice, April 4, 2019. https://www.ictj.org/about.
16. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2011-2017, Part XV, 3 Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987.
17. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2008-2017,

    Part XV, 3 Grants and Contributions Paid During the Year or Approved for Future Payment, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987.

18. Pareene, Alex. “Sorry, Media Matters, No One Actually Wants Your Talking Points.” Salon. Salon.com, May 16, 2013. https://www.salon.com/2013/05/16/sorry_media_matters_no_one_actually_wants_your_talking_points/.
19. 990-PF: Mai Family Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2017, Part VIII, Information About Officers, Directors, Trustees, Foundation Managers, Highly Paid Employees, and Contractors, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/133915987/201803179349101650/IRS990PF