David Rockefeller Fund
/OVERVIEW: The David Rockefeller Fund is a small family foundation that supports the arts, climate solutions, and criminal justice reform in the U.S.
IP TAKE: The David Rockefeller Fund is a family foundation governed primarily by several of David Rockefeller’s descendants and their spouses. The fund is a relatively small piece among the larger Rockefeller Family’s substantial philanthropic activities, offering small to mid-sized, highly competitive grants within its limited areas of interest. In addition to its stated focus areas, the Fund “underwrites a number of initiatives designed to encourage trustees’ individual charitable giving.” For nonprofits working in the DF Fund’s preferred areas of the arts, climate solutions, and criminal justice reform, securing a grant here can feel like a bit of a moonshot. The Fund specifies that it only works with grantees running programs that include a “broader national component.” In 2021, the Fund committed to “resource power-building efforts in support of social movements” across all of its giving areas, and also committed to tripling its climate commitments with a focus on “multi-year, power-building support to BIPOC-led grantees.”
The Fund is highly transparent about its activities and financials, with detailed annual reports and a list of grantees. While the Fund welcomes contact and discussion about potential grantseekers’ work, it only accepts grant proposals on a limited basis, and is not currently accepting letters of intent. This is likely to change, so interested nonprofits should check the website for updates.
PROFILE: Created in 1989, the David Rockefeller Fund was established by David Rockefeller — the youngest child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. — and his spouse Peggy Rockefeller to invest in “catalytic ideas, people, efforts, and institutions working strategically toward ecological regeneration, justice system transformation, and art for social impact.”
David Rockefeller was the youngest son of financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. David Rockefeller graduated from Harvard and studied economics at Harvard, the London School of Economics and the University of Chicago, where he eventually earned a Ph.D. He was a captain in the U.S. Army and served in France and North Africa during World War II. A former CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, David Rockefeller died in 2017 at the age of 101. His children and grandchildren have maintained his foundation.
The David Rockefeller Fund is one of many Rockefeller Organizations. The Fund’s giving priorities include the Arts, Criminal Justice and Climate.
Grants for the Arts and Arts Education
The fund’s Arts program has a national focus and supports “cultivating, showcasing and disseminating the stories of innovative art for social change.”
Arts grants are national in focus.
The Fund mostly supports established organizations, yet is willing to take funding risks with organizations having a difficult time obtaining funding from other, more traditional funders.
Rockefeller supports music, film, arts education and theater organizations across the country.
The DR Fund prioritizes arts-related funding that:
inspires civic engagement
ensures that political and social movements incorporate arts and culture into their strategy
places the priorities and needs of those historically marginalized at the center of healing processes of communities impacted by environmental/climate injustice, mass incarceration, over-policing, and other forms of racial injustice.
Past grantees include Hip Hop Caucus Action Fund, and Fractured Atlas, which received funding for its Scene City project. Theater of the Oppressed NYC, and New Venture Fund, for its IllumiNative program, also received support. To learn more about the arts organizations the Rockefeller Fund supports and at what level, explore its recent grantees list.
Grants for Criminal Justice
Rockefeller’s Criminal Justice program works to support “bold new ideas and policy proposals and initiatives for transforming U.S. detention/incarceration policy.”
Giving through this program is national.
This program also includes the No Kids In Prison Initiative, which addresses America's “[s]ystem of youth incarceration” that is “[u]njust, ineffective and costly.”
This program is particularly interested in grassroots organizing, power building, and advocacy to advance decarceration policies.
Past criminal justice grantee-partners include Action for Safety and Justice, the Bail Project, and the New Venture Fund, which received support for its Community Justice Reform Coalition, as well as the Family Justice Center, which received funding for its New York Youth Justice Initiative.
To learn more about the types of organizations Rockefeller supports and at what level, explore its recent grants listings at the bottom of its page dedicated to its criminal justice program.
Grants for Climate Change and Racial Equity
Rockefeller’s Climate program centers on climate change and supports “[n]ew ideas, initiatives, and policy breakthroughs in support of bipartisan U.S. climate leadership.” The fund is willing to take funding risks with organizations having a difficult time obtaining funding from other, more traditional funders.
The Climate program is particularly interested in funding “bold, science-based leadership on equitable climate solutions. This includes organizing efforts to: address intersecting climate, gender, and racial justice inequities and accelerate and expand movements to keep coal, oil and gas in the ground and shift whole regions to affordable clean energy.”
Climate grants are national in focus.
As a result of its commitment to more equitable climate justice, the Rockefeller Fund prioritizes funding “nonprofits run by, serving, and building power for communities of color who have been the most successful in fighting the climate crisis.” The fund conducts climate change funding through a racial justice lens.
The David Rockefeller Fund also administers climate grants through Richard Rockefeller Climate Change Initiatives, which are “5-year, time-limited set of grant-making initiatives approved by the DR Fund board in November 2018. They were made possible by the estate of the late David Rockefeller at the behest of two grandchildren and in honor of the late Richard Rockefeller, a beloved member of the family and former trustee of the David Rockefeller Fund.”
Past climate change grantees include Jolt Action, the YEARS Project, and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. To learn more about the environmental organizations the fund supports and at what level, explore its recent grantees list at the bottom of its page dedicated to its environmental program.
Important Grant Details:
Grant amounts typically range from $10,000 to $50,000.
At this time, the DR Fund’s “small staff is not considering unsolicited letters of inquiry or grant requests. Please continue to check back for updates.”
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