John and Mary Tu Foundation

OVERVIEW: This funder does most of its grantmaking in the Los Angeles area, where the family lives and works. Funding priorities include education and the arts. The foundation does not have a website but accepts applications.

IP TAKE: Tu has been the primary benefactor of Freedom Writers, an inner-city youth program in Los Angeles. Lately, the young John and Mary Tu Foundation appears to be increasing its grantmaking.

PROFILE: Established in 2010, the John and Mary Tu Foundation was created by John Tu, the co-founder of Kingston Technology, a leading computer memory products manufacturer in Fountain Valley, California. Tu was born in China and raised in Taiwan. Tu came to the United States in the early 1970s. On Black Monday in 1987, when the stock market collapsed, Tu and his business partner David Sun lost their fortunes and were forced to return to square one. Using their expertise, the engineers developed a technology that allows customers to increase the memory storage capacity of their PC, and launched Kingston Technology, headquartered in Fountain Valley, California. Tu is now worth an estimated $5.3 billion. 

Grants for Los Angeles and SoCal

Thus far, the significant aspect of Tu philanthropy has been the relationship with Freedom Writers, an educational program for students from low-income communities. Tu has been the primary benefactor of the Freedom Writers Program and the Freedom Writers Foundation from its inception in Long Beach, California, in 1997.

On the subject of technology donations, Tu also donated $1.2 million to the University of California, Irvine, so that every incoming medical school student would receive an iPad. The so-called iMedEd Initiative at UC Irvine was first launched in 2010 and is supported by the John and Mary Tu Scholarship Fund. 

The foundation also gave $2.5 million to the University of California at Irvine to care for COVID-19 patients at UCI Health. The grant also seeks to advance clinical and translational research to test for and treat the viral infection.

The John and Mary Tu Foundation appears to be increasing its grantmaking. In one year, it made $140,000 in grants to only a few organizations. In the next year, however, the foundation made nearly $2.3 million in grants to a dozen or so organizations. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Education Foundation, which supports the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, received $25,000 and $50,000 in past years. $500,000 also supported Chapman University, and the UC Irvine Foundation received more than $400,000. It also made modest grants to the Fountain Valley location of the nonprofit Go and Do Likewise, which works on community building and education in Kenya. 

The arts also seems to be a funding priority. Tu himself is an avid drummer, playing in his band JT and California Dreamin'. His company Kingston is named after his favorite band from the 1960s. Past grantees include Pacific Symphony, Los Angeles Ballet, Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, and South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa have also been supported. The couple has also supported local public television by giving to the KOCE-TV Foundation.

Important Grant Details

Billionaire Tu is in his 70s and is still involved with business, but should be watched, with Los Angeles likely being the primary beneficiary of his philanthropy. The foundation does not have a website, but direct applications to Tu's CFO, Albert Kong. 

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CONTACT:

Application address:
c/o Albert Kong, 17600 Newhope St.
Fountain Valley, CA 92708