Wagner Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Wagner Family Foundation was established from Herbert S. Wagner III's success as an investment banker with the Baupost Group in Boston. Although the foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications, it awards much of its grant money to Massachusetts organizations in education, medicine, and human services.
FOCUS AREAS: Health, economic mobility, institutional fairness, culture
IP TAKE: This foundation has become more transparent and accessible to local grantseekers in recent years.
PROFILE: Established in 2005, the Wagner Foundation is the foundation of Herbert S. Wagner III and his wife, Charlotte Wagner. Until 2012, Wagner was managing director of the Baupost Group, overseeing billions of dollars of mortgage debt, structured products, and equity investments. Before that, he rose through the ranks at Appaloosa Management L.P., Putnam Investments, and the First National Bank of Chicago (a.k.a. JPMorgan Chase). Charlotte Wagner is the founder and CEO of this foundation. Grantmaking is conducted through an equity lens that aims to create systemic change, addressing health, economic mobility, institutional fairness, and culture.
In the past, this foundation focused pretty exclusively on the Boston community and awarded grants to elementary and secondary school programs, universities, hospitals, and human services organizations. Today, it has expanded its focus on national and international efforts. The foundation now has its own dedicated staff. It now looks for strong leadership, creativity, collaboration, ambition, and strategic approaches.
Grants for Public and Global Health
The Wagner Family Foundation’s health program generally supports quality “healthcare infrastructure and medical training as a means to deliver access to this right.” While the foundation has funded health work around the world, particularly in Haiti, it’s Boston-based health giving has supported organizations like Partners in Health, a Boston-based international medical charity, with a $15 million gift to support its work in developing nations regarding maternal and child mortality. Other past Boston-based health grantees include Facing History and Ourselves and the Boys and Girls Club of Boston.
Grants for Work and Opportunity
The foundation’s economic program invests in work that addresses access to economic opportunities. This includes job training efforts, apprenticeships and other employment-related programs. This area of funding centers on youth in order to help the “next generation to find and create jobs of the future will require a creative approach to working with business partners, greater investments in training and skill-building, challenging systemic barriers while augmenting existing pathways to economic mobility.”
Grants for Arts and Culture
Cultural grants funds both individuals and arts institutions that expand access to the arts. Grants prioritize innovative work, while past arts grants include the VIA Art Fund, the Drawing Center, and Hope on a String.
Grants for Criminal Justice and Human Rights
Lastly, Institution grants invest in grantees and philanthropic work that imagines “institutional change in the interest of overcoming historical and cultural bias. This includes criminal justice reform, policies protecting basic human rights, equitable education opportunities, and programs which confront barriers to historically disenfranchised communities.”
Historically, grants have ranged from $2,500 to $2 million each. View a list of past grantees on the funder’s website. Massachusetts is still a focal point of the foundation, so Boston groups still have a good chance of funding. The foundation does not publish grantmaking guidelines on its website.
The Wagner Foundation does not typically accept unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits. Contact the foundation staff at 617-868-0920 or info@wfound.org.
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