Rock Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Rock Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of venture capitalist Arthur Rock and his wife, Toni. Grantmaking areas are education reform, legal rights, arts and culture and more. 

IP TAKE: The Rock Foundation flies well under the radar, without a notable web presence or a clear way to get in touch with the couple about grants. It does not appear to have a clear funding strategy; however, education, legal rights, and arts and culture have been getting the ions share of donations for the past few years. While this is an inaccessible funder, a mailing address and phone number are included below. Nevertheless, nonprofits will need to network here.

PROFILE: Established in the late-1960s, the Rock Foundation is the foundation of venture capitalist Arthur Rock and his wife, longtime attorney Toni Rembe Rock. Arthur Rock graduated from Syracuse University, served in the army and later attended Harvard Business School. He had an early career on Wall Street, but moved to California in 1961 and founded investment firm Davis & Rock with the late Tommy Davis. Rock became a driving force in the emergence of Silicon Valley and was one of America's first tech venture capitalists. His early investment in Intel in 1968 made him a billionaire. Rock played a key role in launching Fairchild Semiconductor, Teledyne and Apple and other big names in technology. Toni Rembe Rock is a retired partner of the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and has demonstrated interested in legal aid organizations. The couple has been in the Bay Area for decades, where the have been active in civic and philanthropic life. Their grantmaking areas of interest appear to prioritize include education, legal rights, and arts and culture, among other less supported areas.

Grants for K-12 and Higher Education

The Rock Foundation does not have much of a web presence or clear guidelines for grantseekers. However, one area of interest in the Bay Area is education.

·       Last decade, Rock gave $25 million to establish the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School.

·       The couple also gave a $10 million gift to Stanford Law School to create the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. Rock is on the advisory board at Stanford.

·       The couple has also funded the UCSF Mission Bay Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Hall and has supported Golden Gate University. 

·       Other higher education grantees include Syracuse University and the University of Washington Law School — which is home to the Toni Rembe Dean & Professor of Law.

Rock and Toni have also been active in the K-12 and education reform space.

·       The couple supports Teach for America, home to the Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Social Innovation Award, and where Arthur is a lifetime director on the National Board.

·       Rock is a co-founder and president emeritus of the BASIC fund, which provides scholarships to inner-city children in the Bay Area.

·       California Academy of Science has received $20 million from Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock over the years to support a program that provides free field trips to elementary-school children in the San Francisco area.

·       Other recent grantees in the K-12 arena include the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, the New School of San Francisco, the Noble Network of Charter Schools and the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

Grants for Arts and Culture

The Rocks have ramped up their arts and culture giving over the past several years, prioritizing organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Arts and culture grants have gone to outfits such as SF Ballet, SF Playhouse, American Conservatory Theatre, The Exploratorium, Asian Art Museum Foundation, and Magic Theatre, where Toni sits on the board. They have also given $1 million to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco received a $1.5 million gift in 2023.

Grants for Criminal Justice

Toni Rembe Rock is a retired partner in the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and was one of the first women to be named partner at a major law firm in California. In addition to her philanthropy through the Rock Foundation, she has been president of the van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation since the 1990s. The van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation promotes "social justice in Northern California by means of legal services and advocacy." A component of the Rock Foundation's grantmaking also involves these issues and past grants have supported organizations such as the American Bar Foundation, Anti-Defamation League, American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, Bay Area Legal Aid, East Bay Community Law Center, Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Legal Services for Children.

Important Grant Details

In a recent tax year, the foundation held some $49 million in assets and gave slightly over $2 million. Grants ranged from $100 to $240,000. The most common amount was $1,000. Review the foundation’s recent tax records to learn more about local giving. The Rock Foundation's grantmaking involves quite a few Bay Area organizations in Northern California.

The foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding from nonprofits. It only contributes to pre-selected organizations. The address for the foundation is 415 Mission St Ste 5700, San Francisco, CA 94105-2702.

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CONTACT:

415 Mission St Ste 5700
San Francisco, CA 94105-2702
415-981-3921