The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock is a grantmaking organization that provides support to left-of-center initiatives covering purpose areas such as social policy, environmentalism, and economic inequality. It is a part of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, which is a church that participates in various left-leaning causes.

The program is primarily seeded through the donation of the royalties generated by German oil and gas fields that were left by Caroline Veatch, a now-deceased congregant of the church. Despite this funding source, the program and the church have given away large sums of money to fund anti-conventional-energy environmentalist organizations. ¹

Background

The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock is a grantmaking organization that provides support to various left-of-center causes in various fields including environmental justice, community organizing, support for left-of-center immigration causes, left-of-center economic causes, and various other fields. ²

The fund provides support for both religious Unitarian Universalist causes and more secular left-of-center causes. The fund has been providing donations since 1959. ²

The program is part of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock in Manhasset on Long Island, New York. The church is known for its support of left-of-center causes and for funding political causes that other philanthropists may view as too controversial. ³

Funding Left-Wing Activism

As of Summer 2014, the main focus of funding for Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock became community organizing after it adopted its “theory of social change.” The “theory” states that those directly affected by systemic oppression, as the church sees it, were the ones who should directly advocate for change. It therefore funds advocacy groups that demand change from both government and corporate leaders to achieve their activist goals. ⁴

Another difference the program has from other philanthropy vehicles is that it does not ask for the annual budgets of groups to which it potentially gives money. Instead, it works with its Financial Health Indicators tool that was developed with Carol Cantwell that pulls three years’ worth of tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in order to paint an allegedly more holistic view of a potential grantee’s finances. The organization claims that the method gives its board more confidence and that it frees up more time on the grantee’s part to engage in more activism. ⁴

Endowment

The main source of funding for the program is royalty rights in German oil and gas fields that were left to the church by Caroline Veatch, who died in 1953. The fields were discovered by her husband Arthur Clifford Veatch in 1926. ¹

Leadership

The executive director of the Veatch Program is Joan Minieri who has held the position since September 2016. She previously worked as a co-founder of Community Voices Heard, which was a community organizing organization based in New York City. ⁵

Finances

Since the organization is a part of a church, it does not file a tax return. However, the organization does publish an annual report that self-reports how much money it has given in the previous year and to whom it has given money. ⁶

In 2022, it gave $12,746,196 to over 180 mostly left-of-center organizations. ⁶ Among the organizations to which it gave money in 2022 were The Movement for Black Lives, Faith In Action, Jobs With Justice Education Fund, United We Dream Network, Transgender Law Center, Proteus Fund, and many other local and state left-of-center organizations. ⁶

Despite having oil and gas royalties as its funding source, it gave $610,000 to anti-conventional-fuel environmentalist organizations in 2022. ⁶

1. Permann, Kyle. “Church Gives Alms to Leftist Causes.” Capital Research Center. Capital Research Center, August 8, 2018. https://capitalresearch.org/article/church-gives-alms-to-leftist-causes/.
2. “What Is the Veatch Program?” Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock. Accessed May 8, 2023. https://uucsr.org/programs/veatch-program/.
3. Permann, Kyle. “Church Gives Alms to Leftist Causes.” Capital Research Center. Capital Research
   Center, August 8, 2018. https://capitalresearch.org/article/church–gives–alms–to–leftist–causes/.
4. “The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock.” Responsive Philanthropy, 2014. https://www.ncrp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/RP_Summer14_Member_Spotlight.pdf.
5. “New Director at Manhasset Unitarian Universalist Program.” The Island Now, December 31, 2016. https://theislandnow.com/new-director-at-manhasset-unitarian-universalist-program/.
6. “2022 Veatch Annual Report to UUCSR Members.” UU Veatch program blog. Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, December 29, 2022. https://uucsr.org/uu-veatch-program-blog/2022-veatch-annual-report-to-uucsr-members/.