The Resnick Foundation is Los Angeles-based grantmaking organization that provides funding to a variety of center-left to far-left nonprofit activist groups, mostly with a focus on funding California-based organizations and higher education. The foundation is funded by billionaire couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick, longtime Democratic donors who through their holding company the Wonderful Company are the largest growers of pistachios and almonds and wealthiest farmers in the United States.

The couple currently owns and operates brands including POM Wonderful, Fiji Water, Wonderful Pistachios, and Wonderful Almonds, among several others. The couple has drawn criticism from left-leaning environmental groups over their control of billions of gallons of water reserves in drought-prone southern California as well as the prolific harvesting of a Fijian aquifer for its Fiji water brand. ¹

The couple gives to left-leaning organizations through the foundation including giving in response to environmentalist criticism of Wonderful Company practices. ² Groups the Resnick foundation has supported in recent years include the Liberty Hill Foundation, ³ Dignity and Power Now, ⁴ and the Aspen Institute. ⁵

Background

The Resnick Foundation is the personal charitable giving vehicle for billionaire business owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick. The Resnicks met in the 1970s while Stewart was operating a janitorial service he started while a law student. The couple married and sold the janitorial business and purchased Telaflora, a flower delivery service. The couple then purchased the Franklin Mint, a company that sells mail-order collectibles. The couple have fought several lawsuits against their various companies over the years; among the first legal battles arose when the estate and charitable foundation of Princess Diana sued Franklin Mint alleging they did not have permission to profit from her likeness. The couple countersued and ultimately received $50 million, which they donated to charity. ⁶

Stewart Resnick purchased his first piece of farmland as a hedge against inflation in 1978. Since then, he and his wife Lynda continued to expand their fruit and nut growing business to become the wealthiest farmers in America. ⁷

Criticism

The couple’s holding company, The Wonderful Company, owns more than a dozen brands and is most known for Wonderful-brand pistachios and almonds, POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, Fiji Water, and Halo brand mandarins. ⁸

Stewart and Lynda Resnick have faced ongoing criticism and legal challenges over several aspects of their business from environmental groups, including more than twenty years of continual lawsuits filed by the left-leaning Center for Biological Diversity over the Resnick’s ownership of a massive underground water-storage facility near Los Angeles, giving them control of billions of gallons of water for their crops in the drought-prone area. ⁹

The Resnicks have also faced criticism over their ownership of Fiji Water, the world’s largest luxury water brand, over the company’s alleged over-utilization of water from the tiny island nation, which has suboptimal infrastructure for its own residents to access water. ¹⁰

Funding

Stewart and Lynda Resnick have spent many years as active political donors both through he Resnick Foundation as well as through personal political giving. During the 2000 Democratic National Convention held in Los Angeles, the couple hosted a cocktail party at their Beverly Hills mansion honoring Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and featuring then-California Governor Gray Davis (D) and former President Jimmy Carter. ¹¹

The Resnick Foundation supports a variety of left leaning groups including the Aspen Institute, The Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and Conservation International.  The foundation also heavily funds higher education. ¹²

The Resnick Foundation also donated to Los Angeles-based left-leaning groups in recent years include Dignity and Power Now, ¹³ a Black Lives Matter-connected group that is a member of the Check the Sheriff Coalition, a far-left criminal justice organization demanding the resignation of Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva (D). ¹⁴ Dignity and Power Now failed to report several donations to the IRS including a $100,000 grant from the Resnick Foundation in 2016, promoting calls from right-leaning watchdog groups for investigations into the use of the funds by the group’s founder Patrisse Cullors, who faced criticism over using money collected by BLM-affiliated groups to enrich herself and her family. ¹⁵

1. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
2. Hiltzik, Michael. “Column: A nasty fight erupts between a major grower and the giant Wonderful Pistachios firm.” Los Angeles Times. September 15, 2019. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-15/hiltzik-wonderful-pistachio-fight
3. “IRS Form 990.” Resnick Foundation. 2019. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/954658095/09_2019_prefixes_95-99%2F954658095_201809_990PF_2019091016633397
4. Vincent, Isabel. “Nonprofit tied to Patrisse Cullors failed to disclose significant donations.” New York Post. June 19, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://nypost.com/2021/06/19/nonprofit-tied-to-patrisse-cullors-failed-to-disclose-donations/
5. “IRS Form 990.” Resnick Foundation. 2019. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/954658095/09_2019_prefixes_95-99%2F954658095_201809_990PF_2019091016633397
6. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
7. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
8. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
9. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
10. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
11. Sorvino, Chloe. “America’s Nuttiest Billionaire Couple: Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever.” Forbes. November 4, 2015. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2015/11/04/americas-nuttiest-billionaire-couple-amid-drought-stewart-and-lynda-resnick-are-richer-than-ever/?sh=13ca563b3713
12. Resnick Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation, 2018, Part XV Line 3 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/954658095/05_2021_prefixes_95-99%2F954658095_201909_990PF_2021050618073092
13. Vincent, Isabel. “Nonprofit tied to Patrisse Cullors failed to disclose significant donations.” New York Post. June 19, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://nypost.com/2021/06/19/nonprofit-tied-to-patrisse-cullors-failed-to-disclose-donations/
14. “About.” Check the Sheriff Coalition. Accessed July 23, 2021. https://www.checkthesheriff.com/about
15. Vincent, Isabel. “Nonprofit tied to Patrisse Cullors failed to disclose significant donations.” New York Post. June 19, 2021. Accessed July 23, 2021.  https://nypost.com/2021/06/19/nonprofit-tied-to-patrisse-cullors-failed-to-disclose-donations/