Person

Herbert Sandler

Occupation:

Banker & Philanthropist

CEO, Golden West Financial Corporation

Founder, Sandler Foundation

Spouse:

Susan Sandler

Nationality:

American

Born:

1931

Died:

2019

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Herbert “Herb” Sandler was a banker and left-of-center philanthropist. Together with his wife Marion, who was his co-chief executive officer and co-board chair of his two major ventures (the Golden West Financial Corporation and its subsidiary, the World Savings Bank),  Sandler popularized a lending tool called the adjustable-rate mortgage. This allowed home buyers to make lower initial monthly payments on their loans, lowering the barrier to buying a property but increasing the amount owed in the long term. The Sandlers’ successful promotion of this financing option led them to become some of the wealthiest executives in the United States but earned them widespread criticism in 2008 when the American mortgage market collapsed due to risky or “subprime” loans. 1

Sandler and his wife used their wealth to make major investments in the left-of-center policy advocacy and social activism spheres through their Sandler Foundation. They helped fund the creation of the Center for American Progress, one of the flagship think tanks on the institutional left and an incubator for high-level Democratic Party staffers who have gone on to work for the Obama and Biden administrations. In addition, the Sandlers provided launch funding to the left-of-center investigative journalism organization ProPublica, which maintains a widely-used database of nonprofit entity tax records, and continued to support it with $10 million annual grants for years afterwards. Sandler and his wife have also provided significant funding to organizations such as Human Rights Watch, which has also received tens of millions of dollars from the Soros Network, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a controversial legal activist group. 2 Other Sandler grant recipients have included MoveOn Civic Action, a petition, protest, and political contribution coordination platform closely aligned with the Democratic Party, and the controversial, now-defunct left-of-center political organizing project ACORN. 3

Sandler, who said he “can’t stand the powerful taking advantage of those with less power” to justify his left-of-center philanthropic activity, ended up on Time magazine’s list of 25 people to blame for the 2008 financial crisis due to his role in popularizing adjustable-rate mortgages. His wife and long-time business partner died in 2012, and Sandler himself died in 2019. 4 5

Finance Career

Herbert Sandler, together with his wife and fellow financial executive Marion, made a significant portion of their wealth through their Golden West Financial Corporation and its “adjustable-rate” mortgage offerings. These financing options were designed to appeal to home buyers with initially low minimum monthly payments. In 2006, the financial services giant Wachovia Corporation bought Golden West, with the Sandlers earning approximately $2.4 billion from the sale. 6

In 2008, however, Wachovia lost nearly 90 percent of its market value from the previous year’s high after the market for these mortgages collapsed. Sandler and his perceived aggressive promotion of adjustable-rate loans received widespread blame for allegedly contributing to the crisis. In response, Sandler claimed that neither he nor his company misled anyone and dismissed cases of collapsed mortgages as “an isolated case here and there.” He placed most of the blame on other mortgage lenders, insisting that they were the ones to normalize the high-risk approach which led to the crash. 7

Reactions to Sandler’s alleged culpability for the 2008 financial crisis have varied. An obituary in the Wall Street Journal reported that his reputation tanked after the housing crash and that he was “pilloried” for his perceived involvement. 8 Another obituary in the Los Angeles Times suggested that Sandlers’ firm had acted more responsibly than some of its competitors because it did not try to further increase its profits by allowing investors to bet on its loans. 9 ProPublica, which describes Sandler as “the man who made ProPublica possible,” claims that he had turned away from finance and towards philanthropy by 2006 and did not comment on the impact of his mortgage products in its profile of him. 10

ProPublica

Herbert Sandler and his wife Marion helped provide the initial funding to support the formation of investigative journalist organization ProPublica. Founded in 2007-2008, the organization claims that a majority of its funding initially came from Sandler and his wife through their Sandler Foundation, with roughly 93% of ProPublica’s total funding coming from their Foundation in 2008. At the same time, Sandler was selected as chairman of the board of directors for the organization in 2007 and would serve in that position until 2016. According to ProPublica, by 2018 less than 10% of its total funding came from the Sandler Foundation. 11 12 According to 990 data other major donors to ProPublica aside from the Sandler Foundation include hedge fund manager Donald Sussman, health policy advocacy group the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, left-leaning advocacy group Solidarity Giving, and grantmaking group the Foundation to Promote Open Society which was founded by billionaire George Soros.

ProPublica has previously been accused of left-wing bias in its reporting: In 2018, former governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin (R) criticized the organization for announcing a year-long partnership with local Louisville news organization the Courier Journal throughout 2019. Bevin posted on his twitter account, “OUTRAGEOUS. ProPublica, a left-wing activist group funded by the likes of George Soros, is now funding . . . “investigative reporting” at the @courierjournal. Is this the future of journalism? Who is holding the Courier-Journal accountable?” 13 ProPublica’s own twitter account responded by claiming, “You called us a “biased, left-wing organization.” Actually, we believe in evidence. Hard, indisputable evidence. Carefully gathered and precisely told. Perhaps that’s why our peers have given us 4 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodys, 2 Emmys, 6 Polks, a duPont and a National Magazine Award.” 14

Since 2020, the journalist organization has seen an increase in the number of anonymous donations. According to a 2023 article by the New York Post and 990 tax data, ProPublica received up to $4.9 million in anonymous grants in 2020 whilst another $1.399 million in 2021 was reportedly anonymous, which is out of $35 million in donations that were disclosed that year. According to their 2022 audited financial statement, two anonymous donors to the group combined granted donations adding up to roughly $9.9 million, a quarter of their listed revenue at the time. 15 In June 2023, it was reported that several donors to ProPublica had attended a fundraising event in New York City at the home of Mark Colodny, who is a member of ProPublica’s board of directors. Those in attendance included Charles Rockefeller and wife Emily Shippee, Vice President of Spotify’s corporate development Sheila Spence, and chairman emeritus of the Kekst & Co. PR firm Lawrence Rand. 16 Timothy M. Andrews, a former Wall Street Journal editor and ProPublica donor, was present at the event and commented to the New York Post, “I’ve been a donor for a decade and never once have they said anything about what they’re working on in the future…If anyone asks, they always decline, they give zero hint about their future coverage. 17

Grantmaking Activity

Herbert Sandler and his wife provided substantial funding to numerous left-of-center institutions through their Sandler Foundation. These have included ACORN, MoveOn Civic Action, the Center for American Progress, and the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as a number of smaller advocacy organizations. 18 19

The Center for Responsible Lending advocates restrictions on non-traditional financial services which it considers to be irresponsible or exploitative. It also received funding from Sandler, who was criticized for making his fortune by offering a financial product which may have contributed to the 2008 global financial crisis and which was allegedly marketed to economically vulnerable people. 20

Family

Herbert Sandler was born in New York City in 1931. His father was a lawyer and municipal court judge who was involved in Democratic Party politics. In 1961, Sandler married his wife Marion, the daughter of Jewish immigrants and a securities analyst on Wall Street. Sandler and his wife had a daughter named Susan, whom the Jewish Telegraphic Agency described as a “progressive Jewish activist” in a September 2020 profile. During the nationwide protests and riots incited by the radical anti-law enforcement Black Lives Matter movement in the summer of 2020, Susan Sandler announced that she would be establishing her own grantmaking organization to support left-wing racial-activist causes. 21 22

References

  1. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  2. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  3. “Bad Loans.” The Washington Free Beacon. May 20, 2013. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/politics/bad-loans/
  4. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  5. “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.” Time. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1877351,00.html
  6. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  7. [1]Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  8. James R. Hagerty. “Mortgage Lender Herbert Sandler Fought to Restore Reputation After Housing Bust.” The Wall Street Journal. June 7, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.wsj.com/articles/herbert-sandler-home-mortgage-lender-and-philanthropist-dies-at-87-11559776793
  9. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  10. Richard Tofel, Stephen Engelberg. “The Man Who Made ProPublica Possible.” ProPublica. June 5, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/herb-sandler-the-man-who-made-propublica-possible
  11. Tofel, Richard and Stephen Engelberg. “The man who made ProPublica possible” ProPublica, June 5, 2019. https://www.propublica.org/article/herb-sandler-the-man-who-made-propublica-possible
  12. Genzlinger, Neil. “Herb Sandler, Banker Who Financed ProPublica, Dies at 87.” New York Times, June 6, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/obituaries/herb-sandler-dead.html
  13. Feldman, Josh. “Kentucky Gov. Blasts Courier-Journal for Partnering With ProPublica: Supported by ‘George I Hate America Soros.'” Mediate, December 12, 2018. https://www.mediaite.com/online/kentucky-gov-blasts-courier-journal-for-partnering-with-propublica-supported-by-george-i-hate-america-soros/
  14. ProPublica (@propublica). “You called us a “biased, left-wing organization.” Actually, we believe in evidence. Hard, indisputable evidence. Carefully gathered and precisely told. Perhaps that’s why our peers have given us 4 Pulitzers, 3 Peabodys, 2 Emmys, 6 Polks, a duPont and a National Magazine Award.” Twitter, December 12, 2018. https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1073049549814542341?lang=en
  15. Kennedy, Dana and Isabel Vincent. “‘Moral force’ ProPublica under fire for taking millions from secret donors they court at ritzy parties.” The New York Post, June 9, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/06/09/moral-force-propublica-under-fire-for-taking-millions-from-secret-donors/
  16. Kennedy, Dana and Isabel Vincent. “‘Moral force’ ProPublica under fire for taking millions from secret donors they court at ritzy parties.” The New York Post, June 9, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/06/09/moral-force-propublica-under-fire-for-taking-millions-from-secret-donors/
  17. Kennedy, Dana and Isabel Vincent. “‘Moral force’ ProPublica under fire for taking millions from secret donors they court at ritzy parties.” The New York Post, June 9, 2023. https://nypost.com/2023/06/09/moral-force-propublica-under-fire-for-taking-millions-from-secret-donors/
  18. “Bad Loans.” The Washington Free Beacon. May 20, 2013. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://freebeacon.com/politics/bad-loans/
  19. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  20. Jonathan M. Hanen. “No Shame on the Left.” Capital Research Center.” February 5, 2015. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://capitalresearch.org/article/no-shame-on-the-left/
  21. Laurence Arnold. “Herbert Sandler, half of couple who built a home-lending giant, dies at 87.” Los Angeles Times. June 6, 2019. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-herbert-sandler-dies-20190606-story.html
  22. Josefin Dolsten. “Jewish philanthropist Susan Sandler is donating $200 million to fight racism.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency. September 17, 2020. Accessed May 22, 2023. https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/jewish-philanthropist-susan-sandler-is-donating-200-million-to-fight-racism

Connected Organizations

  1. Democracy Alliance (DA) (Other Group)
    Member, Funder
  2. Sandler Foundation (Non-profit)
    Founder and Primary Funder
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