Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG)

As of August 2023, PSFG members include the Ford Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and associated Open Society Policy Center, Ploughshares Fund, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, David Rockefeller Fund, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. ⁴

In 2021, PSFG received $919,615 from the Fund for Constitutional Government for its operating expenses. ⁵

History and Leadership

Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG) was founded in 2000 to connect and support an international community of public, private, and operating foundations and individual philanthropists. PSFG works to advance peace and security efforts to build a critical race theory-influenced equitable, peaceful, and just world. ³

Alexandra I. Toma is the executive director of PSFG. Toma first joined PSFG in 2013. Prior to joining PSFG, she was the executive director of Connect U.S. Fund. Previously, she worked at the anti-nuclear proliferation Ploughshares Fund and as an advisor to U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-MA). She is on the board of the left-of-center Compton Foundation and an advisor to the Colombe Peace Foundation, Outrider Foundation, and the Effective Institutions Project. ⁶ PSFG’s managing director Cath Thompson previously worked at the left-leaning Truman National Security Project. ⁷

Activities

Peace and Security Funders Group is a left-of-center donors collaborative that is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government. ¹ PSFG’s donor-related efforts are focused on nuclear security; the critical race theory-influenced concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and the broader peace and security philanthropic sector. PSFG engages with other philanthropic stakeholders to expand the impact and work of its members, host large forums and board meetings on best practices and ways to advance the left-leaning security-focused philanthropic sector, and work to elevate the impact of its members’ initiatives. ^{2 3}

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

PSFG is committed to the critical race theory-influenced concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The group works to integrate DEI across all of philanthropy in through its internal and external efforts. ⁷ PSFG holds itself and its members responsible for the “perpetuation of white supremacy” and conducts ongoing assessments of how the philanthropic sector has been influenced by what PSFG identifies as inequality and white supremacy. PSFG also provides its members with so-called DEI capacity-building resources, support, and programming. ⁸ Other organizational programming includes creating spaces for members to connect on DEI- and security-focused issues and dismantling what it identifies as “exclusionary, racist practices that have traditionally shaped philanthropy.” ⁹

PSFG has supported the far-left Black Lives Matter movement  ¹⁰ and the global community of funders who seek to build a world influenced by the critical race theory-influenced concepts of equity, justice, and peace. ⁸

PSFG strives to integrate DEI in all its policies, practices, and programs by supporting individual growth, advocating for sectoral shifts, and centering DEI in all of its efforts. The organization attempts to build pathways for connection across the peace and security sector to deepen networks and connections between donors and organizations. Some of PSFG’s programming includes an annual meeting to learn about the state of philanthropy, an annual retreat for members, monthly meetups, federal policy meetings, and other group and coaching activities. ¹¹

Peace and Security Funding Map

In November 2019, PSFG launched the Peace and Security Funding Map, which documents different grants, funders, and grant recipients in the international peace and security grantmaking space. ¹² The map is maintained as a resource for grant seekers to find funders and for funders to find partners across the peace- and security-related philanthropic space. ¹³ PSFG publishes the Peace and Security Funding Index report with the Foundation Center to track donations across the security-focused philanthropic space. ^{14 15}

Membership

Peace and Security Funders Group members include funders that work across the peace and security sector. PSFG connects its members to peer funders and other likeminded left-of-center organizations and donors in the security-related donor space. ¹⁶

PSFG also provides diversity, equity, and inclusion support to its donors to advance left-wing equity and justice agendas in their organizations. PSFG also offers opportunities to connect across the resource sector and publishes original research on peace and security philanthropy-related topics for its members. ¹⁶

PSFG’s steering committee members includes members of the Ploughshares Fund, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, left-of-center political donor George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Jubitz Family Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Colombe Peace Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Stanley Center for Peace and Security, and Humanity United. ³

PSF members include left-of-center American Friends Service Committee, American Jewish World Service, Arca Foundation, Bright Horizon Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Catalyst for Peace, Channel Foundation, Chino Cienega Foundation, Colombe Peace Foundation, Compton Foundation, Patricia Cooper, Abigail Disney and Pierre Hauser, Ford Foundation, Foundation for Middle East Peace, Foundation for Systemic Change, GHR Foundation, Global Peace Building Foundation, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Humanity United, Jubitz Family Foundation, Milton Lauenstein, Longview Philanthropy, Henry Luce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, MADRE, Millstreet Foundation, New Israel Fund, Omidyar Network, One Earth Future Foundation, left-of-center political donor George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Open Society Policy Center, Bernard & Sandra Otterman Foundation, Outrider Foundation, Peace Direct, Ploughshares Fund, PRBB Foundation, Prospect Hill Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, David Rockefeller Fund, Rockflower, Sigrid Rausing Trust, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Secure World Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Stanley Center for Peace and Security, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, United States Institute of Peace, Vitol Foundation, and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. ⁴

Funding

Peace and Security Funders Group receives funding from grants. The organization follows a non-solicitation policy for its donors and supporters. ¹⁷

In 2021, PSFG received $919,615 from the Fund for Constitutional Government for its operating expenses. ⁵ In 2020, PSFG received $725,368 from the Fund for Constitutional Government for its operating expenses. ¹⁸

PSFG received $225,000 from the Ford Foundation, ¹⁹ $172,500 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ²⁰ and $50,000 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2019. ²¹

In 2018, PSFG received $52,500 from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from a grant to the Fund for Constitutional Government. ²¹

In 2017, PSFG received $240,000 in grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ²² and additional support from Candid. ²³ PSFG also received $150,000 from the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund in 2016 ²⁴ and has received financial support from the Ford Foundation through grants from the anti-nuclear proliferation organization Ploughshares Fund. ²⁵