The Overdeck Family Foundation was created by John A. Overdeck, co-founder and co-chair of the hedge fund Two Sigma Investments, and Laura Overdeck, an educator and creator of the Bedside Math Foundation. The Overdeck Family Foundation supports programs in education, with an emphasis on science and math education.

John A. Overdeck

John A. Overdeck is the co-founder and co-chair of Two Sigma Investments, a hedge fund.  with $60 billion of assets under its management. Forbes in 2021 rated Overdeck at number 386 on its list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $6.5 billion. ¹

Overdeck is a director of Khan Academy and the Robin Hood Foundation. ²

Laura Overdeck

Laura Overdeck is as a director of Khan Academy, Liberty Science Center, and The Pingry School. She has been a trustee of Princeton. ²

In 2012, Overdeck began to give math problems to her young children at bedtime. She started posting the problems to a blog she called “Bedtime Math,” and subsequently published four books with math questions. This evolved into the Bedtime Math Foundation, an operating foundation that emails daily math problems for children, sponsors math clubs in schools, and created a national cub called “Crazy 8s” to help children to study math after school. ³

In 2017, Laura Overdeck spoke at the New Jersey March for Science, which the Asbury Park Press said was “officially billed as nonpartisan. However, organizers and speakers are clearly taking aim at recent actions by the administration of Donald Trump” in environmental policy and “abetting of fossil fuel interests.” ⁴

Projects

SciTech Scity

In October 2021, ground was broken on a science campus called SciTech Scity scheduled to open beginning in 2024.  Part of the campus will be Liberty Science High School, which plans to have Laura Overdeck as principal. Laura and John Overdeck donated $5 million for this project. ⁵

Pediatrics Supporting Parents

The Overdeck Family Foundation, collaborating with the Hilton, Kellogg, and Packard Foundations, supports “Pediatrics Supporting Parents,” a group seeking to change the focus of doctor visits for babies and toddlers below age 3. The group says it wants these visits to include “providing support for healthy emotional and social development” and that the program “intentionally centers on those experiencing the impacts of historical and institutional racism and community disinvestment.” ⁶

Grantmaking

In 2019, the Overdeck Family Foundation made six grants of over $1 million to the Robin Hood Foundation ($4 million), Harvard University ($2.1 million), New York University ($1.5 million), Stanford University ($1.25 million), the University of Washington ($1.1 million), and Khan Academy ($1.1 million). ⁷

1. Jemima McAvoy, “The Richest Billionaire In Every State 2022,” Forbes, April/May 2022.
2. “About Us,” https://overdeck.org/about-us/board/ (accessed August 22, 2022)
3. ^[1] “Our Mission,” https://bedtimemathfoundation.org/about-us/mission/ (accessed August 22, 2022).  Lisa Watts, “Bedtime Math Program Improves Kids’ Math Skills, Johns Hopkins Magazine, Winter 2015, https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2015/winter/laura-overdeck-bedtime-math-for-kids/ (accessed August 22, 2022)
4. Dave Garey, “Supporters to Mark Earth Day with N.J. March for Science,” Asbury Park (New Jersey) Press, April 20, 2017.
5. ^[1]Daniel J. Munoz, “Officials Break Ground on Jersey City Science, Tech Campus,” NJBIZ, October 22, 2021,
6. “Pediatrics Supporting Parents:  Our Approach,” https://www.pediatricssupportingparents.org/ (accessed August 22, 2022.)
7. 2019 Overdeck Family Foundation Form 990.