Eileen Rockefeller Growald is the great-granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., the founder of Standard Oil Company. She co-founded the Growald Family Fund and has been involved with a number of other left-of-center nonprofit organizations.
Family
Growald’s great-grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., was the founder of Standard Oil Company and became America’s first billionaire. [1] Growald’s father, David Rockefeller, controlled Chase Manhattan bank for more than ten years and was the last surviving grandson of Rockefeller, Sr. before his death in 2017. [2]
Career
Growald attended Middlebury College and earned a B.A. in 1974 and a M.A. from Lesley College in 1976. [3] In 2013, Growald published Being a Rockefeller, Becoming Myself, a memoir of her experience growing up within a prominent family. In 2017, she published Space Between: Selected Poems, a collection of original poems. [4]
Philanthropy
In 1981, Growald founded the Institute for the Advancement of Health, an organization focused on the mind and body interactions related to health. [5] She also co-founded the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)[6] in 1994. [7]
Growald was also a founding chair of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a charitable advisory organization for left-leaning grantmakers founded in 2000. [8] Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ 2018 tax returns show that the organization received more than $199 million in contributions and grants. The organization also contributed more than $106 million in grants to a number of left-of-center organizations including $500,000 to Planned Parenthood, $450,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and more than $7 million to New Venture Fund. [9]
In 2007, Growald, along with her husband, Paul Growald, founded the Growald Family Fund, which advances a left-of-center environmentalist agenda by investing in environmentalist energy sources. [10] According to the organization’s 2018 tax returns, the Growald Family Fund received more than $11 million in contributions and grants. The organization also distributed more than $10,000 in grants to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and $100,000 to the World Wildlife Fund. [11]
Political Activity
Politically, Growald has contributed to a number of left-of-center candidates and PACs including Swing Left, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL), and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM). [12]