Panta Rhea Foundation is a grantmaking foundation located in La Jolla, California. It makes grants primarily to left-leaning organizations that focus on racial and economic issues, food systems, democracy, and climate change. It has aligned itself with left-of-center organizations to oppose conventional energy infrastructure. ¹

The foundation provides grants throughout the United States, with certain regions receiving greater focus, including California. Panta Rhea Foundation has a sister organization in Germany.

Collaborations

Panta Rhea Foundation joined with the musician and philanthropist Rhianna, whose Clara Lionel Foundation focuses on issues around climate change. Rhianna has also collaborated with other famous people and left-leaning foundations, including the Rockefeller Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, and Jay Z’s Shawn Carter Foundation. ²

In 2021, Panta Rhea became a member of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food. ³

Grantees

It is difficult to track Panta Rhea’s financial grants because its money is moved through other family funds and donor-advised funds. ⁴ Throughout 2020, Panta Rhea Foundation gave over $8 million in grants, most for general operating support. ⁵ In 2018, the foundation allocated money to several left-of-center organizations, including $100,000 to Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Third Sector New England; $125,000 to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; and $3,098 to Thousand Currents. ⁶

Charitable Funds

Panta Rhea Foundation uses its grantmaking to support a variety of funds within its organization. The Food Sovereignty Fund focuses on food systems and climate change. The People Power Fund fights climate change and focuses on political and economic change. This fund evolved from the 2016 Dignity, Freedom, and Solidarity initiative, which was created after the election of President Donald Trump to create an opposition movement among progressive organizations across the country. ⁷

The Global Roots Fund, which also includes the Seaflower Fund, aims to help communities in the Caribbean and Americas make political changes and build communities that preserve the planet. The Panta Rhea Flow Fund launched in 2022 in collaboration with the Kindle Project, which supports arts projects that promote “social change.” The Resilience and Renewal Fund assists grant partners with organizational learning and leadership development. ⁸

Education and Youth

Panta Rhea Foundation provided a grant to The Atlantic for its project “On Teaching” in conjunction with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “On Teaching” examines veteran teachers’ experiences and recommendations, focusing on race and culture, reading and writing, and how to ‘reach’ students. ⁹

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History created the “Hamilton” education program, called EduHam, which provides high school students across the country the ability to attend the “Hamilton” musical for free and to write their own “Hamilton-inspired original raps, poems, plays, and songs to perform on the “Hamilton” stage prior to the show.” Panta Rhea Foundation provided funding for the EduHam performances for Bay Area students in California. ¹⁰

Community, Food, and Workers

Panta Rhea Foundation is one of the donors and funders of the left-of-center California Black Freedom Fund, which will invest $9 million in operating grants to 74 Black-led groups throughout the state in an effort to strengthen “Black-led power-building organizations.” ¹¹

Created from the Governor’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery, the California Building Fund, a public-private partnership that addresses credit gaps for small businesses, was launched in November 2020 by California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) to address difficulties small businesses have faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Panta Rhea Foundation contributes to this fund. ¹²

Major funding for the left-leaning Food Chain Workers Alliance, primarily comprised of labor unions, ¹³ is provided by Panta Rhea Foundation. ¹⁴

In 2017, Panta Rhea Foundation allocated $20,000 to U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a public health research nonprofit primarily focused on health, the environment, and the food system. ¹⁵

Reorganization

In 2015, the foundation began a transformation from a family foundation with only family members occupying the board to one that included family friends who shared the same mission. ¹⁶

For Panta Rhea Foundation’s 20^th anniversary, its founder, Hans Schoepflin, reorganized its funding program, created a new website, added two new board members, and changed the leadership. ¹⁷ The foundation changed to a co-chair model, with Lisl Schoepflin, Hans Schoepflin’s daughter, and Holly Roberson sharing the role. ¹⁸

People

Founder

Hans Schoepflin, a venture capitalist who was one of the founding members of a company that later became Costco, founded Panta Rhea Foundation in 2001 and its sister organization, Schoepflin Foundation, in his native country of Germany. He is the founder and president of the Schoepflin Investment Company. Schoepflin participates in the Spore Initiative, a cultural project. ¹⁹

Executive Director

In October 2019, Connie Malloy became the executive director of the Panta Rhea Foundation. She is a social and environmental activist, urban planner, philanthropist, and writer. She was previously at the left-leaning James Irvine Foundation and led the California Democracy Program, which focused on voter engagement, immigration and election policies, and low-wage worker issues. Malloy also worked at Urban Habitat, an environmental justice organization and previous Panta Rhea Foundation grantee, where she led efforts to expand government-funded housing and public transportation. She served on California’s Citizens Redistricting Commission which redrew California’s Assembly, Senate, Congressional, and Board of Equalization electoral maps. ²⁰

Food and Democracy Program Director

Anna Lappé is the director of Food and Democracy at the Panta Rhea Foundation. ²¹ She is the author of “Diet for a Hot Planet,” contributing author to several other books, an outspoken advocate for reducing climate change through altering worldwide food consumption habits and food stability, and an advisor to “funders investing in the food system.” ^{22 23}

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11. Thornton, Cedric. “The California Black Freedom Fund Invests Nearly $9 Million in 74 Black-Led Power-Building Groups.” Black Enterprise. June 30, 2021. Accessed May 31, 2022. https://www.blackenterprise.com/the-california-black-freedom-fund-invests-nearly-9-million-in-74-black-led-power-building-groups/
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15. Donors, IRS Filings, and Governing Documents. U.S. Right to Know. Accessed June 2, 2022. https://usrtk.org/donors/
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20. ^[1] Executive Director Announcement. Panta Rhea Foundation. June 24, 2019. Accessed June 12, 2022. http://pantarhea.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final-PRF-Chair-ED-Announcement.pdf
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23. About – Anna Lappé. Anna Lappé. Accessed June 9, 2022. https://annalappe.com/about/