The Phoebus Fund is a private foundation based in Vermont. While the Fund was founded with a broader focus on various causes, since 2000 the majority of its annual grantmaking has gone to fund the Bread and Roses Community Fund, a Philadelphia-based criminal justice activist group. ¹

The Phoebus Fund has abortion advocacy at its roots, as its founder was an abortion advocate who had been honored by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) of Pennsylvania,² as well as by the feminist Ms. Foundation, and who previously established another foundation that is centered on advocacy for women and girls, including advocacy for abortion and contraception. ³

The Bread and Roses Community Fund’s name originates from the phrase “Bread and Roses,” a political slogan tied to the American socialist movement and the Industrial Workers of the World radical labor union. ⁴

History

The Phoebus Fund was established as a family foundation in 1986 by the late Phoebe V. Valentine, an heiress and native of Philadelphia. The fund’s goals upon founding were to support domestic violence prevention, advocate for abortion rights, and fund community development among Central Americans, education, and humanitarian aid. ³

Valentine had established the Valentine Foundation in 1985, a Philadelphia-area organization that advocates for social change in issues related to women and girls. Two of the foundation’s grantees in its 2018 fiscal year were projects associated with advocating for abortion access. ⁵

Valentine received the Gloria Steinem Philanthropic Vision Award from the Ms. Foundation in 1990,³ and in 1995 she was honored by the National Abortion Rights Action League of Pennsylvania. ⁶

Criminal justice

In the year 2000 Valentine’s family approached the Bread and Roses Community Fund for assistance in administering the Phoebus Fund. This partnership between the Phoebus Fund family foundation and Bread and& Roses Community Fund lead to creation of the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative, which awards grants to organizations advocating left-wing criminal justice policy. ²

Between 2000 and 2013, some 66 organizations advocating change to the criminal justice system were awarded grants through the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative totaling $785,000. Bread & Roses provides administrative support for the grants, but grant decisions are made together with Valentine family members and criminal justice activists. ¹

In FY2017, the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative paid $66,570 to Bread and Roses,⁷ and the prior year that figure was $61,654. ⁷

Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grantees campaign for “police accountability,” to correct alleged racial bias in sentencing policy, to abolish for-profit prisons, for reform of youth incarceration, and against the death penalty. ⁸ The Initiative awarded 10 grants in 2018, with some grantee initiatives having more radical leanings that others⁹

Funding

According to Phoebus Fund’s 2017 form 990, it had a total revenue of $90,645, $75,902 total expenses, and ⁷

1. “Donor Profile.” Bread & Roses Community Fund. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://breadrosesfund.org/about/newsletter-archive/newsletter-2014-issue-1/donor-profile/.
2. “CENTRAL BUCKS CHAMBER SEEKS NOMINEES FOR LIFE AWARDS.” The Morning Call, January 17, 1995. https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1995-01-17-3025512-story.html
3. “Biography of Phoebe V. Valentine.” Bread & Roses Community Fund. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://breadrosesfund.org/biography-of-phoebe-v-valentine/.
4. Labor Notes. “Bread and Roses.” Zinn Education Project, 2007. https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/bread-and-roses-song/.
5. “VALENTINE FOUNDATION 2018 Grantees.” Valentine Foundation. Accessed August 18, 2019. http://www.valentinefoundation.org/grantees/.
6. McCarthy, Kathleen D. “The Ms. Foundation: A Case Study in Feminist Fundraising.” philanthropy.org. Accessed August 18, 2019. http://www.philanthropy.org/publications/online_publications/ms.pdf.
7. Foundation Center. Accessed August 18, 2019. http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990pf_pdf_archive/236/236856169/236856169_201609_990PF.pdf.
8. “About the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative.” Bread & Roses Community Fund. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://breadrosesfund.org/grants-scholarships/phoebus-criminal-justice-initiative/.
9. “Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative Grantees.” Bread & Roses Community Fund. Accessed August 18, 2019. https://breadrosesfund.org/phoebusgrantees/.