Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation is a donor-advised fund housed at the Miami Foundation that supports arts and culture, health, education, the environment and economic development in Miami and South Florida.
IP TAKE: The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation is known as a major arts funder in Miami, but in recent years its support of other issue areas, such as health and the environment, has expanded. This funder’s close working relationship with the Miami Foundation is emblematic of how wealthy local donors can successfully partner with community foundations. This funder is perhaps best known for its inaugural donation of $35 million to The Pérez Art Museum Miami, formerly known as the Miami Art Museum. The Pérez family continues to support the museum. In an interview with Inside Philanthropy, Jorge M. Pérez shared his pride in the museum. “There were no large public institutions in this country that had the name of a Hispanic until the Pérez Art Museum. So it was very important to me to create that type of legacy,” Pérez said. “I don’t really want to be known as the guy that built a thousand buildings. I’d much rather be known as somebody who cared about society and gave back and created a family tradition of giving.”
The majority of Pérez Family Foundation grant applications are accepted on an invitation-only basis. Select grant programs, such as the annual CreARTE program, has occasional open calls for applications. Open opportunities are posted and regularly updated on the funder’s website. This funder is only partially transparent about its giving. While grantees are listed for select grant programs, a full list of grantees with corresponding grant amounts is not available at the website. For grantseekers, getting your foot through the door here will be challenging without deep networking. Note that the couple’s four children have become increasingly involved with the foundation, and opportunities are likely to accelerate. It’s worthwhile for Miami-based grantseekers working within the Pérez Family Foundation’s issue areas to check back frequently.
PROFILE: The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation is a donor-advised fund managed by the Miami Foundation and based in Miami, Florida. This is the foundation of real estate developer Jorge M. Pérez, chairman and CEO of the Related Group, and his family. Pérez and his wife, Darlene, are signatories of the Giving Pledge. A son of Cuban parents, Jorge Pérez grew up in Argentina and Colombia before attending CW Post University on Long Island. He later received his M.S. from the University of Michigan. As a young urban planner, Pérez met developer Stephen Ross, which led to a long and profitable partnership. Pérez runs the Related Group, which claims to have developed more than 80,000 condos, mostly in South Florida. Pérez has also executed large-scale real estate development projects in Central and South America.
The foundation’s mission is to “to promote sustainable, inclusive and just communities by supporting programs and organizations focused on arts and culture, health and well-being, education, the environment and economic development.” It funds local efforts for arts and culture, health and well-being, education, environment and economic development in South Florida. The foundation’s approach involves addressing “challenges to residents’ quality of life, especially those with limited access to opportunities” and solving problems “at the individual, neighborhood and system/policy level.” This funder also “prioritizes efforts that are striving to scale up by expansion or replication by others.”
Grants for Arts and Culture, Arts Education
Pérez is, perhaps, best known for its arts and culture grantmaking program, Pérez CreARTE. The program was launched in 2019 and has since invested more than $5 million in Miami-Dade organizations that work toward expanding “residents’ access to the arts” and turning Miami into an international hub for “artistic excellence.” Previous CreARTE grantees include the HistoryMiami Museum, the Miami Book Fair at Miami Dade College and the Bakehouse Art Complex, among many others. The program awards two-year grants in amounts ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. Detailed guidelines are linked to the site, and application due dates generally fall in April each year.
In the arts space, the family also funds the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), which is a modern and contemporary art museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international art. Jorge Pérez gifted the museum cash and artworks totaling about $40 million in 2011.
Grants for Education
Pérez’s education grantmaking aims to “[p]rovide aspiring children and youth with exceptional learning and personal growth opportunities from early childhood through high school.” The foundation has provided ongoing support to the KIPP Miami Charter School Network. Other education grantees include the Future Bound Miami college savings program and the Education Fund, which “provides private sector leadership and support for innovation in public education” in Miami-Dade County.
While higher education is not a stated area of interest, Pérez has provided significant support to Florida International University throughout the years. The school’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences is home to the Jorge M. and Darlene M. Pérez Nursing Laboratory, and in 2013 the couple made a $1 million donation to the university’s Honors College to create the the Jorge and Darlene Pérez Scholars Endowment, which provides “scholarships for high-achieving students in the college, particularly those intending to live and work in the South Florida community upon graduation.”
Grants for Public Health
The foundation’s health giving works to “[h]elp people with limited resources lead more active, productive, and enriching lives by adopting healthier lifestyles or adapting to their health or physical conditions.” Grantees include the Baptist Health Foundation, the Jackson Health Foundation, Plaza Health Network and the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Miami.
It is worth mentioning that in 2006, Pérez and Darlene made a significant donation to Florida International University’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, creating the Jorge M. and Darlene M. Pérez Nursing Laboratory.
Grants for Work, Opportunity and Housing
Pérez names economic development as one of its main giving areas. Grantmaking works broadly to improve career access and training, develop small local businesses, expand affordable housing and provide “personal finances education” to area residents. Grameen America has received funding for its work providing micro-loans and other forms of support to low-income women entrepreneurs. Other grantees include Venture Café Miami, the Capital Good Fund, the Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami.
Grants for Environment and Community Development
The Pérez Foundation makes grants to preserve the environment and “advance urban livability.” Areas of specific interest here include maintaining and improving access to “urban green spaces” and “protecting the natural environment” in and around Miami and South Florida. Grantees include the Miami Waterkeeper and the Everglades Foundation.
Important Grant Details:
Grants range between about $10,000 and $300,000, but gifts to grantees with which the foundation maintains ongoing relationships may be much larger.
Grantmaking is mainly limited to Miami-Dade County in South Florida.
Small- and medium-sized arts and culture organizations number significantly among the foundation’s grantees.
The Pérez CreARTE program accepts applications for funding. Guidelines are linked to the program page in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. For most other areas of giving, proposals are accepted by invitation only, although this may change as the foundation continues to develop its programming.
Information about past arts grantees and other grantees are linked to at the foundation’s website.
Direct general questions to the staff at foundation@relatedgroup.com.
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