The Women’s Project Foundation is a private foundation that was established in 1986 in Brooklyn, Ohio to award grants that support projects that benefit women and children, and expand opportunities for women. ¹ The foundation’s tax returns show Louise Gund as its sole contributor. ²

Since 2018, the Women’s Project Foundation has contributed solely to the Goatie Foundation with grants totaling over $42 million. ³ The Goatie Foundation makes grants to education, the arts, and to left-of-center environmentalist groups. ⁴

Background

The Women’s Project Foundation is a private foundation established in 1986 in Brooklyn, Ohio. ¹ Its original focus was to support projects that benefit women and children in areas such as family planning, alcoholism, education, filmmaking, and the arts. ⁵ It has no social media presence and the foundation’s tax returns show Key Private Bank is its trustee and that it has no employees. ⁶

Until 2008, trustees were listed as Key National Bank or Key Private Bank and Louise Gund. ⁷ In 2009, the Women’s Project Foundation tax returns show Key Private Bank as its sole trustee. ⁸

Funding

The Women’s Project Foundation tax returns beginning in 2000 show Louise Gund as its sole contributor. ² Her contributions to the Women’s Project Foundation originated from the sale of Kellogg stock. ⁹

Gund describes herself as a Broadway producer and environmental activist living in the San Francisco Bay area of California. ¹⁰ Her father, George Gund Jr., sold his family brewery during Prohibition and bought decaf coffee maker Sanka. In 1927, he sold Sanka for shares in Kellogg’s. He was a real estate investor and banker. He passed away in 1966 leaving his family a 9 percent share of Kellogg’s. In 2015, the Gund family’s estimated worth was $3.4 billion. ¹¹

Gund is a consistent political donor. In 2024, she donated $200,000 to the  Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, $100,000 to the Lincoln Project (a super PAC opposed to the election of President Donald Trump and Republican Party candidates), and smaller amounts to the Democratic parties of nearly every state. ^{12 13} As of 2025, Gund was on the boards of Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley; the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; and the San Francisco Opera and is an  honorary life trustee of Earthjustice, a law firm that litigates on behalf of environmental activists. ¹⁴

Grantmaking

In 2001, the Women’s Project Foundation’s sole grantee was the Goatie Foundation for $1.175 million. This is the year that the Goatie Foundation was established. From 2001 to 2003 the Goatie Foundation was its only grantee. ¹⁵

From 2004 to 2018 the Women’s Project Foundation made smaller grants to additional organizations focused on women and children and the arts. These included Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Women’s Media Center, the Film Arts Foundation, the Women’s Foundation of California, and Futures Without Violence. ¹⁶ It also contributed to abortion-access-related causes including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, and abortion clinic Preterm Cleveland. ^{16 17}

Since 2018, the Goatie Foundation was the sole grantee of the Women’s Project Foundation with grants totaling over $42 million. ³

Goatie Foundation

Since 2010, the Goatee Foundation has consistently contributed to several left-of-center environmentalist organizations and environmental legal advocacy groups including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Earthjustice, Ecojustice, the Greenpeace Fund, the National Audubon Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. ⁴

Since 2010, the Goatie Foundation has consistently contributed to the Ploughshares Fund, ⁴ an anti-nuclear proliferation organization that supports left-of-center groups including the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Federation of American Scientists, MoveOn.org Civic Action, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. ¹⁸

In 2015, the Goatie Foundation awarded a 5-year grant to the Clinton Foundation, ⁴ a global philanthropic foundation established by former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea Clinton. ¹⁹

1. Women’s Project Foundation.” Candid Foundation Directory. Updated March 29, 2024. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://fconline.foundationcenter.org/fdo-grantmaker-profile?key=WOME029
2.   Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Schedule B). 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.
3. “Women’s Project Foundation.” Instrumentl Foundation Directory. Accessed April 18, 2025. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/women’s-project-foundation
4. “Goatee Foundation TA TR 990 Report.” Instrumentl Foundation Directory. Accessed April 14, 2025. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/goatee-foundation-t-a-tr
5. “Women’s Project Foundation.” Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/women’s-project-foundation
6. Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part VII). 2023.
7. Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part VIII). 2000 – 2008.
8. Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part VIII). 2009 – 2023.
9. Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Schedule B.) 2018, 2019, 2020.
10. LinkedIn – Louise Gund. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisegund/
11.  “Gund family.” Forbes profile. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/profile/gund/?ctpv=searchpage
12. The Lincoln Project homepage. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://lincolnproject.us/
13. “Louise Gund.” OpenSecrets donors. Accessed April 15, 2025. https://www.opensecrets.org/search?order=desc&q=louise+gund&sort=D&type=donors
14. “About Louise Gund.” Louise Gund. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://louisegund.com/about-louise-gund/
15. Women’s Project Foundation. Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990PF – Part XV). 2001, 2002, 2003.
16. “Women’s Project Foundation.” Instrumentl Foundation Directory. Accessed April 17, 2025. https://www.instrumentl.com/990-report/women’s-project-foundation
17. Preterm homepage. Accessed April 17, 2025. https://www.preterm.org/
18. “Our Grantees.” Ploughshares. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://ploughshares.org/grants/grantees/
19. Clinton Foundation homepage. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://www.clintonfoundation.org/