Stephen Silberstein

Silberstein is a private figure and has made few public statements. As of 2026, he was a member of the left-of-center donor network Democracy Alliance and of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy left-of-center donors who advocate for higher taxes on the wealthy. At that time, he was sitting on the board of National Popular Vote, the 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and was a trustee of the U.C. Berkeley Foundation and the U.C. Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy. Inside Philanthropy has noted that Silberstein’s foundation has supported “nearly every major progressive policy and advocacy group in the U.S.” ^{4  5}

Education

Silberstein earned a B.A. in economics and a Master of Library Science from University of California, Berkeley, as well as a master’s degree in econometrics from the University of Stockholm, in Sweden.⁶ He stayed at Berkeley after his studies and worked as a computer programmer in the 1970s in U.C. Berkeley’s library.⁶

Innovative Interfaces

In 1978, Silberstein cofounded Innovative Interfaces, which designed automated catalog systems for libraries.⁷

Philanthropy and Political Activity

Silberstein was a top-20 donor to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s super PAC, Priorities USA Action, in the lead up to the 2016 election.⁸

In May 1998, Silberstein established the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation in Belvedere, California.⁹ Institutions and causes in the Berkeley area have been primary recipients of Silberstein’s donations; Silberstein gave a $1 million grant to the U.C. Berkeley Foundation in 2013, and he has also supported the Berkeley Public Education Foundation as well as the Oakland School of the Arts.⁷

According to a 2015 report by Inside Philanthropy, “Nearly every major progressive policy and advocacy group in the U.S. has received money from Silberstein in recent years.”⁷ Silberstein is particularly concerned by wealth inequality and has supported organizations advocating for raising taxes on the wealthy.⁷ He also executive produced Inequality for All, a documentary featuring Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich examining the country’s alleged widening wealth and income gap. ¹⁰

Silberstein is also a member of Democracy Alliance and Patriotic Millionaires, the latter of which being a group of wealthy left-of-center donors who advocate for higher taxes on the wealthy.⁹

For In the 2022 Oregon gubernatorial race, Stephen Silberstein reportedly donated $175,000 to Democratic candidate Tina Kotek. Kotek, a stated supporter of contribution limits, also received large donations from the Service Employees International Union and education advocacy group Stand for Children Oregon. ¹¹

“In September 2021, Silberstein was one of ten donors that the Michigan Freedom Fund had filed a campaign finance complaint against for excessive donations to the reelection campaign for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Titled Gov. Whitmer’s “$100,000 Club”, the individuals were identified as sending donations that exceeded the $7,150 contribution limit according to Michigan state law. Silberstein himself donated $100,000 to Whitmer’s campaign on May 10^th, 2021.” ¹²

Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation

As of 2026, Stephen Silberstein was the head of the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation. During the fiscal year 2021, the Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation awarded approximately $9,875,200 to left-of-center organizations. Identified recipients included the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Foundation, As You Sow, the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, and Human Rights Watch. Among environmentalist grantees the foundation supported the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Sierra Club Foundation. Between 2022 and 2023, the foundation gave $280,000 to As You Sow, an organization that uses shareholder activism to pressure companies to adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. In 2023, the foundation made 47 grants,  totaling approximately $6,920,000, down from a peak of $9.875 million in 2021. As of 2024, the foundation reported assets of approximately $76.9 million, a decline from the more than $112 million in assets reported in earlier years. ¹³

National Popular Vote

In addition to his foundation work and concern for wealth inequality, Stephen Silberstein has advocated for a direct election of the president of the United States, and as of 2026 was sitting on the board of National Popular Vote, ¹⁴ a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization which aims to override the traditional state-by-state functioning of the Electoral College in order to elect the candidate who gets the most votes in all 50 states by forming a compact among a sufficient number of states representing a sufficient number of Electoral College votes.¹⁵

As of April 2026, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact had been enacted by 19 jurisdictions possessing 222 electoral votes, including California, Illinois, New York, and 16 smaller states as well as the District of Columbia. The compact needed states representing an additional 48 electoral votes to reach the 270 required for activation. Minnesota joined in May 2023 and Maine joined in June 2024, being the two most recent additions at the time. The compact added only 14 electoral votes in the five years between 2019 and 2024, and the remaining states with Democratic legislative trifectas capable of passing the compact represented fewer than the required 48 additional electoral votes. The Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation has been an identified donor to National Popular Vote, alongside other left-of-center funders including the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation, Democracy Fund Voice, and the Tides Foundation. ^{16 17}