Starr Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Starr Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States and supports health, medical research, education, human needs, foreign policy, the environment and arts and culture. It generally provides ongoing support to large, well-established organizations.
IP TAKE: This foundation boasts a large endowment, and its grantees include leading institutions of higher education, medical research, and policy development. While Starr funds universities across the United States, it prioritizes organizations and institutions serving the greater New York City area. The Starr Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding.
PROFILE: Founded in 1955 by insurance entrepreneur, Cornelius Vander Starr, The Starr Foundation has developed into one of the largest private foundations in the country. It’s founder started C.V. Starr & Co. and other companies, which later morphed into the American International Group, Inc. under the leadership of Maurice R. Greenberg. An early supporter of globalization, Mr. Starr established his first insurance venture in Shanghai in 1919 and left his estate to the foundation when he died in 1968 at age 76. With around $1.5 billion in assets, Starr focuses its giving on education, medicine and healthcare, human needs, public policy, culture and the environment. This New York City-based foundation favors well-established non-profit organizations that have a proven track record of success.
Grants for K-12 Education and Higher Education
Education is the Starr Foundation’s largest area of giving, and grantmaking consists mainly of college scholarships for “deserving students” at 100 pre-selected colleges and universities in the U.S. The foundation also supports exchange programs for foreign students to study in the U.S. and for U.S students to study abroad. Starr’s education giving has endowed scholarships and exchange programs in its founder’s name at more than 100 secondary and post-secondary institutions. The foundation has also invested in education through its human needs program, which supports literacy and job training initiatives in New York City, and its culture initiative, which has funded some arts outreach programs aimed at student populations. The foundation’s endowments are invitation-only.
Grants for STEM Education and Cell Research
Starr's primary STEM education work prioritizes scholarship organizations and postsecondary schools throughout the United States that offer Starr Foundation-supported scholarships, "need-based financial aid to students seeking to attend secondary and post-secondary schools," and a number of exchange programs that send U.S. students abroad and bring international students to the U.S.
While Starr's other programs (Culture and the Arts, Human Needs, Public Policy, and the Environment) have not attracted much STEM-related higher education funding, its Medicine and Healthcare focus allocates “significant research grants and grants to assist in the provision of healthcare to under-served communities in New York City and overseas,” with a stated plan to focus increasingly on preventative healthcare going forward.
The most significant grants in this area include a $10 million award to support stem cell research at the University of Miami Medical School and a $6 million endowment for the creation of two professor positions in veterinary medicine at Cornell University.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
The Starr Foundation’s medicine and healthcare program is one of its largest areas of giving, supporting “capital grants to hospitals, significant research grants and grants to assist in the provision of healthcare to under-served communities in New York City and overseas.” The foundation has stated its interest in expanding its giving in this field in the future. Grantseekers should note that the foundation does not fund individual research projects, preferring to support New York City hospitals and research centers more broadly. The most significant grants in this area include a $10 million award to support stem cell research at the University of Miami Medical School and a $6 million endowment for the creation of two professor positions in veterinary medicine at Cornell University.
Grants for Food and Hunger
The Starr Foundation’s human needs grantmaking supports “emergency food programs, job training, literacy programs, programs for the disabled and programs that provide emergency or transitional housing for the disadvantaged” in New York City and beyond. The foundation primarily funds New York-based organizations, but it sometimes supports national organizations who work in and around New York. The foundation’s human needs grantmaking also sometimes includes refugee and humanitarian relief efforts.
Grants for Civic and Democracy
The Starr Foundation’s public policy grantmaking seeks to promote “international relations and the promotion of the rule of law and democratic institutions around the world.” In this regard, the foundation recently lent its support to Texas A&M University “for the George H. W. Bush Sixth Biennial China-U.S. Relations Conference...held in Beijing.” The foundation also recently gave $1 million in unrestricted support to the NYU School of Law, as well as a similarly unrestricted award of $25,000 to the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. The foundation has also made multimillion-dollar donations to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Council on Foreign Relations, National Committee on United States-China Relations, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
While the Starr Foundation does not name a specific interest in climate change and broadly funds environmental issues, tax filings show an investment in climate change, with grants ranging widely from about $25,000 to millions of dollars. Past climate change grantees include the Center for National Interest, the Environmental Defense Fund, Securing America’s Future Energy Foundation for general operating support, and the Central Park Conservancy, among many others. Environmental grants prioritize the New York region, but applicants from beyond New York still secure Starr grants. Starr’s support for the Environmental Defense Fund is also noteworthy.
Important Grant Details:
The Starr Foundation’s grants range anywhere from a few thousand to over $1 million, but its average grant size is about $50,000, and it makes over $60 million in grants most years. Starr scholarships to individuals range from $4,000 to about $25,000. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Starr Foundation does not accept unsolicited materials or requests for funding. Grants are awarded by invitation only on a rolling basis.
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