The Taube Family Foundation is one of two foundations created by Thaddeus “Tad” Taube, a real estate Investor and entrepreneur. The foundation supports philanthropic projects in the San Francisco Bay Area and center-right nonprofits, most notably the Hoover Institution. The Taube Family Foundation and its affiliate, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, are grouped together as the Taube Philanthropies.

Thaddeus “Tad” Taube

Background

Thaddeus “Tad” Taube was born in Krakow, Poland in 1931 and emigrated to the United States in 1939. He became a U.S. citizen in 1952 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford. After serving two years in the Air Force, Taube formed the Woodmont Companies, a real estate investment firm. ¹

Taube is a trustee of the Hoover Institution and has been a trustee of the University of Notre Dame de Namur, the University of San Francisco, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. ²

Koret Foundation

In 1982, following the death of founder Joseph Koret, Taube became president of the Koret Foundation, a position he held until 2014, when he became a trustee. In 2014, Koret’s widow, Susan Koret, sued the foundation and several trustees, including Taube, claiming the foundation was diverting grants to projects Taube favored, including grants to the Federalist Society and the Ayn Rand Institute. The foundation’s “money shouldn’t be used to for Tad Taube’s pet projects,” Koret charged, “or to help conservative economic and policy think tanks—now when so many in the Bay Area go to bed hungry each night.” ³

The lawsuit was settled in 2016 when both Susan Koret and Tad Taube agreed to resign from the Koret Foundation board and become emeritus trustees. ⁴

Grants in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Taube Family Foundation has made several major grants supporting building construction in the San Francisco are. Two have benefitted the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (created by David Packard and supported by the Packard Foundation). In 2015, Taube and philanthropist John Arrillaga led a $40 million capital campaign that dramatically expanded the facility’s Ronald McDonald House, which provides low-cost accommodation for parents of children undergoing treatment in the hospital. ⁵ In 2018, Taube and his wife Dianne donated $20 million to the construction of a new main building for the hospital. The Stanford Daily reported that the gift meant that Taube’s donations to the hospital were $35 million, making him “one of the hospital’s top five donors.” ⁶

Other Bay Area-grants included $1.3 million in a challenge grant towards the restoration and reopening of the UC Theatre in Berkeley, California ⁷ and $2 million to restore the lights on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. ⁸

Grants to Center-Right Organizations

Hoover Institution

Taube is a trustee of the Hoover Institution and has endowed the positions held by Hoover director and George W. Bush administration U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ⁹ and senior fellow Peter Berkowitz, a State Department official during the Trump administration. ¹⁰

“The Hoover Institution is very close to my heart,” Taube wrote in a 2013 memoir, “Because for more than five decades it has held the core belief that private enterprise and limited government are the wellsprings of our country’s initiative and creativity.  I agree with that strongly.” ¹¹

Reagan Presidential Library

In 2021 the Taube Family Foundation gave a grant to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Institute to launch a “George P. Shultz Fellowship” program in memory of former Secretary of State George Shultz. The first Shultz Fellow, Francis Tilney Burke, will study Reagan administration policies in Latin America. ¹²

Tea Party Patriots Foundation

In January 2021, Jewish Federations of North America CEO Eric Fingerhut questioned grants made by the Helen Diller Family Foundation and the Taube Family Foundation to the Tea Party Patriots Foundation, a group that organizers of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 claimed funded them, a charge the Tea Party Patriots Foundation denied. The Taube Family Foundation made a $7,500 grant to the Tea Party Patriots in 2017 and $12,500 in 2019.

A spokesman for Taube said that “Mr. Taube does not condone violence.” ¹³

1. “About Tad,” http://www.tadtaube.com/about/  (accessed January 17, 2022).
2. “About Tad,” http://www.tadtaube.com/about/  (accessed January 17, 2022).
3. Karina Ioffee, “Lawsuits Divide Koret Foundation,” Sam Jose Mercury News, October 8, 2014.
4. “The Koret Foundation and Susan Koret Resolve Litigation,” press release from the Koret Foundation, September 25, 2016.”
5. Tracy Siegel, “Ronald McDonald House at Stanford Opens New Facility to Serve More Families In Need,” Oakland Tribune, May 10, 2016.
6. Nicholas Midler, “Taube Family Donates $20 Million Toward Construction of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital’s Main Building,” Stanford Daily, April 6, 2018.
7. Annalee Allen, “Historic UC Theatre to Reopen as Berkeley. Music Group’s New Venue, Will Offer Youth Programs,” Oakland Tribune, August 7, 2015
8. Denis Cuff, “$2M Gift to Keep Bay Bridge Lit Up:  Drive to Sav Sparking Display Needs $368K To Meet $4M Goal,” San Jose Mercury News, December 12, 2014.
9. Hoover Institution, Condoleezza Rice, https://www.hoover.org/profiles/condoleezza-rice (accessed January 18, 2022).
10. Hoover Institution, Peter Berkowitz, https://www.hoover.org/profiles/peter-berkowitz (accessed January 18, 2022)
11.  Tad Taube, The Journey and the Destination:  A Life In Business and Philanthropy (Belmont, California:  Taube foundation for Jewish Life and Culture), 65.
12. “Ronald Reagan Institute Announces The Inaugural George P. Shultz Fellow, Dr. Frances Burke,” press release from Taube Philanthropies, https://www.taubephilanthropies.org/ronald-reagan-institute-announces-inaugural-george-p-shultz-fellow-dr-frances-burke (accessed January 18, 2022).
13. Ron Kampeas, “After Capitol Riot, Federation Chief To Avoid Repeat of Grants To Far-Right,” Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2021.