Time Warner Foundation

Time Warner Foundation was listed as providing “founding support” to the Sundance Institute’s Equity, Impact, and Belonging Program that advocates for race, gender, and LGBT issues to be addressed by the film industry. ² It has partnered with the Sundance Institute to fund a fellowship program that makes grants to fellows that it picked based on their ethnicity. ³

Background

The Time Warner Foundation is the corporate foundation of Warner Bros. Discovery, previously named WarnerMedia and before that Time Warner. It was originally founded in 1997 by AOL under the name “AOL Foundation” and later changed its name to “AOL Time Warner Foundation” after AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000 and later changed its name to “Time Warner Foundation.” ⁴

Before its merger, the AOL Foundation created the website helping.org in 1999 and was later taken over by the AOL Time Warner Foundation following the merger. As of January 2001, helping.org had raised $2.35 million in total contributions that were made to over 650,000 charities. ⁵

By 2017, it began winding down operations. From 2022 through 2024, it reported no expenses, contributions, or investment income. ¹

Grantmaking

In 2006, Time Warner Foundation began a fellowship program through a partnership with the Sundance Institute that made grants to fellows in support of diversity initiatives in the film and theater industry. It prioritized the selection of fellows based on their ethnicity and included screenwriters, directors, composers, filmmakers, producers, and performers. Notable fellows include Ryan Coogler, Sydney Freeland, Reinaldo Marcus, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Yung Jake. ³

In May 2002, Time Warner Foundation announced a grant to the Museum of the City of New York to support the archival of video footage related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The grant was also made to support a digital campaign where museum visitors can take the footage used in the HBO documentary IN MEMORIAM: NEW YORK CITY, 9/11/01 to create memorial “tiles” used to create a mosaic on the HBO website. ⁶

As of May 2002, the then-named AOL Time Warner Foundation and AOL Time Warner had made over $7 million in contributions to 9/11 relief and recovery efforts in New York City. It also had made contributions to the “Tribute in the Light” campaign, the After-School Corporation, mental health programs for September 11th survivors, and to the purchase of a fire engine for New York Fire Department Engine Company 23. ⁶

Activities

Alongside the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program and Fund and the San Francisco Film Society, the Time Warner Foundation produced the 2019 film Little Woods. The film is a fictional story of a woman in financial distress who illegally transports prescription medicine from Canada to resell in America. ⁷

Leadership

As of 2026, Todd Davis was the president and executive director of Time Warner Foundation, and was also executive vice president and senior tax counsel for Warner Bros. Discovery. He previously was a tax partner for Ernst and Young and executive vice president and senior tax counsel for NBC Universal. ⁸

Financials

In 2024, Time Warner Foundation reported $0 in expenses, $56 in assets, and $56 in revenue that came from an excise tax refund. ⁹ From 2022 to 2023, Time Warner Foundation reported $0 in revenue, expenses, and assets. ¹⁰

Between 2017 and 2021, Time Warner Foundation reported $12,021 in revenue. Between 2020 and 2021, Time Warner Foundation reported $484,316 in expenses and $100 in expenses in 2019. ¹¹ Between 2015 and 2018, it reported $15.2 million in expenses. ¹²