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
- “The Oak Hill Fund.” The Oak Hill Fund. May 15, 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://oakhillfund.org/
- 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.
- “Oak Hill Fund.” Guidestar.org. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://www.guidestar.org/profile/31-1810011.
- “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.
- Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Two, Line 31.
- “Women’s Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/wrhrj.html.
- “Geographic Restrictions for Specified OHF Initiatives.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/oakhill_maps.html.
- Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Fifteen, Section 3.
- Oak Hill Fund, Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2017, Part Fifteen, Section 3a.
- “About.” National Network of Abortion Funds. 2019. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://abortionfunds.org/.
- Hopewell Fund. 2017. Accessed July 09, 2019. https://www.hopewellfund.org/.
- “Climate Change and Renewable Energy.” The Oak Hill Fund. 2018. Accessed July 09, 2019. http://www.oakhillfund.org/climate_renewable.html.