Non-profit

Oak Hill Fund

Website:

www.oakhillfund.org

Location:

CHARLOTTESVLE, VA

Tax ID:

31-1810011

Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)-PF

Budget (2015):

Revenue: $6,039,363
Expenses: $8,027,500
Assets: $89,309,253

Formation:

2001

President:

William Edgerton 13

References

  1. Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Eight, Line 1a.

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The Oak Hill Fund is a left-of-center grantmaking organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia. 1 The Oak Hill Fund was established in 2001 as a 501(c)(3) organization from the division of the W. Alton Jones Foundation, along with the Blue Moon Fund (now the Cassiopeia Foundation) and the Edgerton Foundation. 2

Oak Hill Fund grants are directed towards environmentalist projects, women’s health initiatives, and pro-abortion organizations.

History

The IRS gave Oak Hill Fund tax exempt status in 2001. 3 The Fund arose from the division of the W. Alton Jones Foundation. W. Alton Jones was an oil executive responsible for completing 3128 miles of oil pipelines from Texas to cities on the East Coast. 4 Upon the dissolution of his Foundation, three new organizations were created, including the Oak Hill Fund. 2 Each of the three new organizations is run by Jones’s descendants. Architect William Edgerton, Jones’s grandson, has been president of the Oak Hill Fund since its foundation.

When the W. Alton Jones Foundation was divided, it had a $400 million endowment. 2 At the end of 2017, the Oak Hill Fund reported $97.4 million in assets. 5

Advocacy Funding

Oak Hill Fund grants provide “overhead funding” for advocacy projects. 1 There are two main areas in which grant funding is focused: environmental activism and women’s reproductive health, especially abortion rights and contraception access.

Women’s Health Programs

The Oak Hill Fund focuses grants on projects which work to make emergency contraceptives available without a prescription and expand access to long-acting reversible contraceptives such as intrauterine devices. 6 Until 2016, grants were also given to projects seeking to expand public-school sexual education programs. 6 The group only provides grants in the southeastern United States. 7

The Oak Hill Fund contributed over $981,000 in grant funding to pro-abortion organizations and projects in 2017, 20 percent of its total grant payouts that year. 8 This includes both general funding for pro-abortion organizations and grants given explicitly to further abortion access.

In 2017 alone the Oak Hill Fund provided over $200,000 in grants to the National Network of Abortion Funds and the Hopewell Fund. 9 The National Network of Abortion Funds is designed to “remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access” by connecting women seeking an abortion with organizations that will fund the procedure. 10 The Hopewell Fund is a funding organization in the Arabella Advisors network. 11 The grant given to the Hopewell Fund by the Oak Hill Fund was granted with the express purpose of providing loans and grants to low-income women for use in paying for abortions. 9

Also in 2017, the Oak Hill Fund gave a $334,125 grant to the Whole Women’s Advocacy Alliance with to open a new clinic in Charlottesville and promote abortion advocacy. 9 The Oak Fund also has a demonstrated interest in expanding access to abortion, as demonstrated by an $80,000 grant to the NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation. 9

Environmentalist Programs

Aside from women’s health issues, the Oak Hill Group focuses on environmental advocacy. Specifically, they give grant priority to projects that educate the public and policy makers, install renewable energy in low-income neighborhoods, create finance models for solar and wind power, and “defend against harmful fossil and nuclear fuel projects.” 12 In spite of being in favor of renewable energy reform, the Oak Hill Group is adamantly against the use of nuclear power. 12

Smaller projects include water quality projects, conservation of coral reefs, food security, and protection of various tree species. 12

Notable Grant Recipients

Most of the Oak Hill Fund’s grants recipients are concentrated in the local Charlottesville area. There are, however, several notable grant recipients that operate on regional or national scales:9

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation Inc.: $10,000

Appalachian Voices: $75,000

Center for Progressive Reform Inc.: $45,000

Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN): $85,000

Environmental Integrity Project: $60,000

Hopewell Fund: $75,000

International Rescue Committee: $10,000

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Foundation: $80,000

National Network of Abortion Funds: $100,000

National Network of Abortion Funds Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund: $46,000

National Wildlife Federation: $54,550

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): $10,000

Oceana, Inc.: $75,000

Physicians for Social Responsibility: $60,000

Planned Parenthood of Maryland: $25,000

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: $5,000

Planned Parenthood Southeast Inc.: $75,000

Rockefeller Family Fund: $80,000

Southern Environmental Law Center: $105,000

References

  1. “The Oak Hill Fund.” The Oak Hill Fund. May 15, 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://oakhillfund.org/
  2. Provence, Lisa. “Green Offshoots: W. Alton Jones Foundation Sprouts Oak Hill Fund.” The Hook – Charlottesville’s Weekly Newspaper, News Magazine. October 17, 2002. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.readthehook.com/92625/news-shygreen-offshoots-w-alton-jones-foundation-sprouts-oak-hill-fund.
  3. “Oak Hill Fund.” Guidestar.org. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/31-1810011.
  4. “Leadership.” W. Alton Jones – Leadership – Harvard Business School. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://www.hbs.edu/leadership/20th-century-leaders/Pages/details.aspx?profile=w_alton_jones.
  5. Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Two, Line 31.
  6. “Women’s Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/wrhrj.html.
  7. “Geographic Restrictions for Specified OHF Initiatives.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/oakhill_maps.html.
  8. Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Fifteen, Section 3.
  9. Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Fifteen, Section 3a.
  10. “About.” National Network of Abortion Funds. 2019. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://abortionfunds.org/.
  11. Hopewell Fund. 2017. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://www.hopewellfund.org/.
  12. “Climate Change and Renewable Energy.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/climate_renewable.html.
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: December 1, 2001

  • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2015 Dec Form PF $6,039,363 $8,027,500 $89,309,253 $3,333,961 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2014 Dec Form PF $9,143,409 $6,547,747 $100,168,229 $3,894,213 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2013 Dec Form PF $8,518,304 $7,887,999 $103,867,488 $3,892,107 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2012 Dec Form PF $4,610,418 $7,304,383 $89,125,277 $2,970,704 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF
    2011 Dec Form PF $3,351,285 $5,833,647 $81,442,324 $2,953,762 $0 $0 $0 $0 PDF

    Additional Filings (PDFs)

    Oak Hill Fund

    PO BOX 1624
    CHARLOTTESVLE, VA 22902-1624