Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation primarily funds grantmkaing related to education, cultural organizations, and medical research.

IP TAKE: The foundation lacks transparency, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities.

PROFILE: Established in 1995, Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation bears the name of the late Donald and Elizabeth Dickinson. It is currently steered by their son Martin Dickinson, and family. Martin son’s Kris is executive director. Martin co-founded Legacy Bank, which later merged with Landmark National Bank. The foundation lacks transparency, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities. According to tax filings, the Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation primarily funds grantmkaing related to education, cultural organizations, and medical research.

Grants for Los Angeles and SoCal

The Dickinsons’s education grantmaking invests in various university level and institutional projects. The Dickinson Foundation also supports first-year graduate students for a one-year fellowship at Scripps. Martin is vice chair of San Diego Botanic Garden and Dickinson’s wife Carol is on the board of National Tropical Botanical Garden, which runs gardens in Hawaii and Florida. The couple helped create the Dickinson Family Education Conservatory.

Grants range from $7,500 to $500,000. In a recent fiscal year, the foundation gave away around $1.9 million. Past grantees include Pacific Ridge School, Zoological Society of San Diego, Rady Children’s Hospital, and Autism Tree Project. As well, other higher education grantees include University of San Diego’s Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and its purchase of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer to be used for Scripps research in marine drug discovery.

Important Grant Details

The foundation should be contacted with an initial letter, which provides detailed description of project and amount of funding requested. A copy of IRS Determination Letter should be included. Deadlines are October 31st.

PEOPLE:

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CONTACT:

Donald C. & Elizabeth M. Dickinson Foundation
Po Box 7078
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067