Oak Foundation USA

The foundation has funded climate-change-related litigation and environmentalist advocacy groups based in Canada, Europe, as well as the U.S. It has also funded projects supporting the Chinese-backed infrastructure plan the Belt and Road Initiative. ²

The foundation has donated grants to left-of-center environmentalist groups that oppose the use of carbon-free nuclear power. ³

Background

The Oak Foundation USA is the American branch of the Oak Foundation, an international grantmaking organization that advocates for left-of-center environmentalist policies. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the international organization maintains offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Bulgaria, India, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. ¹

Between 2022 and 2023, Oak Foundation USA gave $418,071 to As You Sow, a left-of-center advocacy organization that engages in shareholder action to pressure companies to adopt various left-of-center positions under the banner of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. ⁴

Advocacy

Immigration

The Oak Foundation USA previously funded El Pueblo, Inc., a North Carolina-based Latino voter mobilization and registration organization that advocates against immigration enforcement laws. In 2018, Oak granted $4 million to Human Rights Watch to “counter the anti-rights populist surge” in the U.S. ⁵

As of 2025, Oak Foundation had given a total of $100,000 to the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, ³ a group that provides funding to attorneys assigned to represent undocumented migrants facing deportation as well as advocating against immigration enforcement policies. ⁶

Environment

Oak Foundation US has previously funded left-of-center environmentalist groups such as Greenpeace, the World Resources Institute, Environmental Law Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund. It also supported organizations that promoted the 2015 Paris Climate Accords as well as other global climate change-related policies. ^{7 2}

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had given the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc. a total of $20 million to support the group’s environmental work. Some $10,000,000 was directed to support RPA’s Urban Movement Innovation Fund, a donor’s collaborative used to fund environmentalist movements. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had given the left-of-center environmentalist advocacy grantmaker Justice Outside a total of $750,000 to support its Liberated Paths grantmaking program which funds environmentalist groups that focus on nonwhites. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had given a total of $750,000 to Oceana, a left-of-center group which works on environmental issues related to the oceans. The group had given a total of $1,500,000 to the Center for International Environmental Law which opposes the use of conventional energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal and opposes the use of carbon-free nuclear power. ³

The group had given a total of $750,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund, a left-of-center environmentalist group which has campaigned against carbon-free nuclear power. The group had also given a total of $1,000,000 to the ClimateWorks Foundation which works as a pass through for foundations and other grantmakers to fund environmentalist groups. ³

The group gave a total of $2,425,000 to the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives which advocates for waste reduction, the reduction of the use of incinerators, and oppose the use of carbon-free nuclear power. The group gave a total of $448,394 to the Atlantic Council to support a campaign to raise awareness through gaming technologies to “ensure a sustainable and thriving planet for generations to come.” The group gave a total of $400,633 to Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), which opposes the use of carbon-free nuclear energy, to support CPI’s work on moving towards a low carbon economy by focusing on “building and construction, agriculture, and energy.” ³

The group gave a total of $800,000 to the Rocky Mountain Institute which published a discredited study claiming that gas stoves caused around 13 percent of childhood asthma cases and opposes the use of carbon-free nuclear power. The group donated a total of $1,150,000 to the World Resources Institute, which is opposed to the use of carbon-free nuclear power. The group donated a total of $700,000 to the Sustainable Markets Foundation to support its work to ban conventional sources of energy such as oil and natural gas. The group gave a total of $1,000,000 to the Pacific Environment and Resources Center, which opposes the use of carbon-free nuclear power. ³

European Climate Foundation

The Oak Foundation has provided funding to the European Climate Foundation, ⁸ created in 2008 to promote de-carbonization policies within European countries. ⁹ Although the ECF claims on its website that its grantmaking functions are limited to the European Union, its operations extend into the United States. ¹⁰

ECF’s Global Strategic Communications Service (GSCC), which assists governments, nongovernmental organizations, media, and think tanks in the development of climate communications, crafted to ensure that “each campaign bolsters an over-arching narrative.” ¹¹ GSCC has taken root in the U.S. and the G-20 countries outside of the European Union. Email correspondence obtained through open records requests from the office of then-Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) with Tom Brookes, the executive director of GSCC and a senior adviser to ClimateWorks Foundation, a major Oak Foundation grant recipient, showed GSCC intervention in U.S. policy. ¹²

In his correspondence with Inslee’s team, Brookes offered to assist Inslee in possible messaging techniques that could be used to advance Inslee’s environmentalist agenda. An archived version of the ECF website shows that ECF is part of the ClimateWorks Network. According to the website, the network “shares goals, strategies and resources to address the global challenge of climate change mitigation with a global network of aligned organizations.” ¹³

China’s Belt and Road Initiative

In 2018, the Oak Foundation donated $1 million to ClimateWorks Foundation “to support the greening of the Belt and Road Initiative,” a global trade infrastructure project pushed by People’s Republic of China (PRC) leader Xi Jinping to create a global infrastructure network between China and countries on the Eurasian continent. ^{2 14} The Oak Foundation also donated grants to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as well as the Global Environmental Institute in support of Belt and Road-related activities. ²

Tech and Media

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated roughly $875,000 in grants to Common Sense Media to “support efforts that ensure that digital environments are safe for children.” ³ Common Sense Media has previously supported increased regulations of social media and artificial intelligence as well as using taxpayer subsidies to increase internet access. The group has supported state legislation to regulate social media to prevent “racism, hate speech, negative body image, and more.” ¹⁵

The Oak Foundation is a supporter of the Heat Initiative, having given the group a total of $1,500,000 as of 2025 to help get it off the ground. ³ The Heat Initiative is a fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, a nonprofit managed by philanthropic consulting firm Arabella Advisors. ¹⁶

The Heat Initiative demanded Apple break its strong encryption policies and scan iCloud files to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and alert police if any were detected. Apple refused to do so, claiming that it would open the door for widespread surveillance and would threaten the cybersecurity of its users. In 2020, the Oak Foundation donated $250,000 to another group pushing legislation in the European Union to weaken end-to-end encryption. The Heat Initiative head, Sarah Gardner, joined the group from Thorn, an anti-child trafficking group founded by actor Ashton Kutcher, which was cited along with the Oak Foundation in a report alleging the two groups worked with law enforcement and private corporate interests to weaken encryption in Europe. ¹⁶

The Oak Foundation is a supporter of public broadcasting, having sent a total of $900,000 to Minnesota Public Radio American Public Media as of 2025 to support its coverage of education in the United States. The group also sent $100,000 to National Public Radio. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $250,000 to Article 19, Inc., a group supporting freedom of expression, the right to protest, and freedom of the press. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $4,500,000 to Reporter’s Shield, ³ which was created by the left-of-center group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and formed with seed funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Reporter’s Shield defends journalists around the world against SLAPPs—strategic lawsuits against public participation—that are filed against them, which the group claims causes journalists to self-censor and threatens freedom of the press. ¹⁷

Other Donations

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation donated $600,000 to the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED), which is a critical race theory-aligned group which offers professional development programs to teachers and offers “equity audits” to schools. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $500,000 to the Urban Justice Center to scale up its community organizing efforts to support “ending the criminalisation of homelessness.” ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $2,000,000 to the National Housing Law Project to support its work in opposing evictions and “preserve and increase the supply of affordable homes.” ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $600,000 to the Action Center on Race and the Economy Institute, which is a critical race theory-aligned group advocating for expanded economic regulations and environmentalist policy. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $126,000 to the Unitarian Universalist Association. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $600,000 to the New Economy Project to support its work to expand public housing in New York City. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $1,250,000 to the People’s Action Institute, a left-wing agitation group. ³

As of 2025, the Oak Foundation had donated a total of $230,000 to the Proteus Fund, a center-left “pass through” organization which funds other left-of-center groups. ³

Leadership

Founder

British-born businessman Alan M. Parker, who lives in Geneva, Switzerland with an estimated net worth of about $2 billion, is the founder and main funder of the Oak Foundation. ^{18 19} He was an accountant and key early partner of the Hong Kong-based firm Duty Free Shoppers (today DFS Group) which retails luxury goods in major airports and resorts worldwide. ²⁰ Parker eventually became the CFO of the DFS Group as well as its third largest shareholder. ^{21 18}

Besides Parker, another co-founder of Hong Kong-based Duty Free Shoppers was Charles “Chuck” Feeney. Feeney later founded Atlantic Philanthropies, a Bermuda-based foundation that funded the advocacy group Health Care for America Now, one of the drivers of the campaign to pass Obamacare. ²²

According to an October 2012 report by Forbes, Feeney hired Parker, an accountant, in the early 1960s to be a joint owner and “help manage the bootstrapped business more professionally.” ²³ In 1997, Feeney and Parker sold their shares in DHS to French multinational LVMH: Feeney for $1.6 billion, Parker for £464 million (or $605.6 million in U.S. dollars). ²⁴ Parker later moved to Geneva, where he now resides and serves as on the Oak Foundation’s board of directors alongside his wife, Jette. In 2014, his net worth was estimated to be $2.34 billion. ²⁵

Other Staff

Douglas Griffiths became president of the Oak Foundation in January 2019. Previously, he was a career Foreign Service Officer, most prominently appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 to be the U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva and later U.S. Ambassador to Mozambique ²⁶

Caroline Turner is board president of the Oak Foundation USA. Turner appears to be the principal and owner of DifferenceWORKS, a for-profit “gender diversity” consultancy. ²⁷

Oak Foundation vice president Heather Graham is a former Gates Foundation program officer, vice president of Teach For America, program associate for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and President George W. Bush White House fellow. ²⁸ Graham is also the director of the group’s learning differences programme. ²⁹

Kristian Parker – the son of Alan and Jette Parker – runs the foundation’s environmental program from Geneva. Parker has held the position since 1998 and is on the boards of the ClimateWorks Foundation and Oceana, both major recipients of Oak Foundation funding. ³⁰

Natalie Parker, the daughter of Alan and Jette Parker, is a member of the board of trustees of Oak Foundation USA. ³¹