Druckenmiller Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Druckenmiller Foundation supports economic mobility, the environment, and health, as well as K-12 education, higher education and the greater New York City area.
IP TAKE: The Druckenmiller Foundation maintains a low profile, with no website and limited public information about its grantmaking practices. That said, information about the foundation’s grants are available in its annual 990 forms, which reveal a propensity to make very large “Big Bet” general operating grants to established institutions and universities. In a rare and wide-ranging 2023 interview with Inside Philanthropy reporter Michael Kavate, Stanley Druckenmiller said he enjoys “Andrew Carnegie’s approach of being as anonymous as possible… I certainly don’t want any publicity for our philanthropy. We enjoy it immensely, but we don’t like to wear it on our sleeves and make a big deal about it.”
The foundation is not accessible, and does not appear to accept applications for funding. This is a moonshot funder for grantseekers, and funding often goes to the same organizations year after year. In his Inside Philanthropy interview, Druckenmiller said, “If you find a great leader, and find out they can scale well, just continue funding them. That’s why we’re pretty much steady as you go — and incredibly excited about the stuff we’re doing.”
PROFILE: Established in 1993, the Druckenmiller Foundation was created by Stanley Druckenmiller, founder of the hedge fund Duquesne Capital Management, which he ran until his semi-retirement in 2010. This coincided with a huge uptick in his philanthropy, channeled through the foundation, which he runs with his wife, Fiona, a Wall Street executive turned business owner. The foundation's recent tax filings show about $1.6 billion in assets and giving that surpasses $100 million a year. It is among the 100 largest philanthropies in the United States. The foundation broadly invests in economic mobility, health, and the environment. It also supports K-12 education, higher education, and the New York area.
This funder does not maintain a website, limiting up-to-date information about its specific funding priorities. However, Druckenmiller’s interview with IP does provide some crucial insight, along with IP’s analysis of the foundation’s recent tax filings.
Grants for Work and Economic Opportunity
Economic mobility is one of Druckenmiller’s top priorities. The foundation seeks to support groups operating in the “pockets or neighborhoods where kids just don’t have a chance.” The foundation’s past giving includes Tipping Point Community and NYC Mission Society. It has also given hundreds of millions to Blue Meridian Partners, a philanthropic collaborative that aims to broaden the impact of the most effective nonprofits working with underprivileged children and youth in the United States.
Grants for K-12 Education
A major beneficiary of the Druckenmiller Foundation’s K-12 grantmaking is the Harlem Children’s Zone, a New York City organization that runs charter schools and other community programs for children, and where Stanley Druckenmiller has served as chair of the board. According to tax filings, in 2022 alone the foundation gave $26 million to the organization.
Other grantees include Teach for America, the mentoring program PeerForward and Blue Meridian Partners. New York City private schools that have received grants include the Spence School and the Episcopal School of the City of New York. The foundation has also given to Harlem Educational Activities Fund.
Grants for Higher Education
Like many philanthropists, some of Druckenmiller’s largest gifts in higher education stem from ties with his family's alma maters. Aside from giving more than $40 million to his alma mater, Bowdoin, he has given $17 million to Stanford, his daughter Hannah's school. Similarly, he gave $5 million to Brown University, which his daughter Tess attended. He has also made smaller grants to Barnard, his wife’s alma mater, and the Central European University, which was founded by his long-time friend George Soros.
At New York University, the foundation has supported the Langone Health Neuroscience Institute with a gift of $100 million to establish the center in 2009, followed by an additional $48 million between 2017 and 2021. The Druckenmillers have made grants to various other programs at NYU as well.
Grants for Health, Public Health and Diseases
In 2022, the foundation announced a major gift of $100 million to New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for the establishment of the Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller Presidential Innovation Fund, “which will seed projects in translational cancer medicine.” An earlier multi-million-dollar gift to Memorial Sloan Kettering saw the establishment of the Fiona and Stanley Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research. Stanley Druckenmiller is a member of the cancer center’s board of trustees.
Other recent health grants include $6 million to The New York Stem Cell Foundation and ongoing gifts to the NYU Langone Medical Center.
Grants for the Environment, Animals, Wildlife and Climate Change
Recent years have seen an uptick in Druckenmiller’s support for organizations working in land and water conservation, animals and climate change mitigation. The foundation provides ongoing support to the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York City’s Central Park Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund.
In 2022, the Environmental Defense Fund received $5 million, and the Central Park Conservancy received a major $50 million general operating grant.
Grants for New York
The Druckenmiller Foundation supports a broad range of health, arts and culture organizations that serve the greater New York City area. In health, the foundation has given to the Northwell Health System, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the New York City Mission Society, Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital and the South Hampton Hospital Foundation. Arts funding has gone to leading cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, Harlem’s Apollo Theater and the Horticultural Society of New York.
Important Grant Details:
The Druckenmiller Foundation has an endowment exceeding $1.5 billion and made about $150 million in grants in a recent year.
Druckenmiller’s grants tend to be large, ranging from $10,000 to tens of millions. The foundation’s median grant size is about $5 million.
Grantees tend to be prestigious and well-known institutions and organizations, and New York City is a clear geographic area of priority.
It views its “philanthropic endeavors as investments” and prioritizes support “that will have an impact over the longer term.”
The Druckenmiller Foundation does not maintain a website and does not appear to accept applications for funding at this time. The foundation may be reached by telephone at 212-830-6650. A mailing address is provided below.
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CONTACT:
The Druckenmiller Foundation
40 W. 57th St., 25th Fl.
New York, NY 10019-4001
(212) 830-6650
