The Max and Anna Levinson Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that financially supports nonprofit organizations in the areas of environmentalism, left-of-center social policy, and Jewish and pro-Israel causes. [1]
Environmentalist activist Charlotte Levinson Talberth, granddaughter of Max and Anna Levinson, is the president of the foundation.
Environmentalism
Grantmaking
The Max and Anna Levinson Foundation allocates grant money to various nonprofits that focus on environmental initiatives, for example, Round River Conservation Studies[2] and the Center for Biological Diversity. [3] Money was allocated to the Rising Tide North America Action Fund by the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation to then be redistributed to groups that are left-leaning and work within the “climate justice and climate movements.” [4]
The foundation made a one-time grant of $1 million to the International Forum on Globalization in 2007. [5] The foundation supports allots money to numerous left-of-center environmentalist organizations, including Oil Change International, 350.org, Appalachian Communities Health Emergency, Tar Sands Action, Rainforest Action Network, Beyond Coal, and Move to Amend. [6]
In 2017, the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation provided money to Taos filmmaker David Luis Leal for the creation of his first feature film, Drilling Mora County. The documentary examines the county’s attempt to ban natural gas exploration. [7]
Advocacy by Talberth
In a letter to the World Bank, foundation president Charlotte Levinson Talberth and the foundation were named as supporters denouncing the environmental and social damage that the supporters deemed was caused by large damming projects and urged the World Bank to cease funding such efforts. [8]Talberth joined other environmentalists in an “Environmentalists Against Gore” communication during the 2000 Presidential election. Talberth was named in a press release by the activist group that denounced the candidacy of then-Vice President Al Gore for president and encouraged supporting Ralph Nader, or “anyone but Gore,” due to Gore’s alleged inaction to help the environment. [9]
Social Policy
The foundation financially supports nonprofit organizations that focus on left-of-center social policy issues, such as liberal expansionist immigration policy, drug legalization, and left-feminism. [10]
The foundation awarded a senior from the University of California, Berkeley with a $5,000 grant for a podcast based on her feminist sex education blog, The Sex Uneducated. [11]
The foundation funded the Project for Global Democracy and Human Rights, formally known as the Americas Project, that examines human rights in a context of globalization because it believes commerce, capital, communications, and immigration have political implications. [12]
Jewish Religion and Culture
The foundation makes grants supporting supports Jewish religion and culture, including Jewish culture, religion, community, and the Yiddish language. [13]
The foundation gave money to Yugntruf – Youth for Yiddish for a scholarship to a retreat for Yiddish-speaking youths who are from Eastern Europe. [14] In addition, money was allocated to The Forward, a left-leaning Jewish-community newspaper, to relaunch a Yiddish-language online edition. [15]
Jewish Creativity International has listed the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation as major funders of its projects. [16]
Board Members
Many of the foundation’s board members are descendants of Max and Anna Levinson. Charlotte Levinson Talberth, Max and Anna Levinson’s granddaughter, is the foundation’s president. [17] The foundation’s directors include Ed Levinson, Gordon Levinson, and Julian Levinson,[18] all grandchildren of the founders. [19]
Talberth, a former activist with the Cathedral Forest Action Group and former president of Forest Guardians’ board,[20] became the president of the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation in the mid-1980s. [21] Talberth is married to John Talberth, former director of Forest Guardians (now WildEarth Guardians). Talberth has been active in conservation issues and forestry since the 1980s and has been “one of the earliest and most outspoken advocates for zero cut within the environmental grantmaking community.” [22]
Funding
The Max and Anna Levinson Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax except private foundation. The foundation reported $67,902 in expenditures in its 2017 fiscal year. [23] The organization reported no employees receiving over $50,000 in compensation. [24] The executive president of the foundation, Charlotte Levinson Talberth, received $139,000 in compensation in 2017, with an additional $20,000 in contributions to her employee benefit plan or deferred compensation, and an additional $9,197 in an expense account, other allowances. [25] All other members of the board received $3,000 compensation. [26]