Robert A. Fox Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Robert A. Fox Family Foundation supports education, opportunity, services and innovations for people with disabilities. This funder strongly emphasizes blind and visually-impaired populations.
IP TAKE: The Robert A. Fox Family Foundation uses “data related to eye health, student success, employment rates, and other relevant metrics to tailor our programs and measure impact.” This is an excellent funder to know if your organization works with children or adults with visual impairments. However, the Fox Family Foundation’s grantmaking has served fewer organizations over the past several years, and often supports the same grantees repeatedly. As of this writing, the foundation continues to accept letters of inquiry of four pages or less, although response may take up to six months. Overall, this is an accessible funder for organizations working in its narrow areas of interest. Reach out with questions and ideas at any time.
PROFILE: Established in 2017, the Robert A. Fox Family Foundation is a private foundation based in Santa Monica, California. Robert A. Fox held top leadership roles at Foster Farms, Revlon International, Clark Hooper America, Continental Can, Nabisco, Del Monte and other companies. Other Fox family members serve as foundation board members and leadership staff. The foundation works to “address the complex interplay between poverty and vision loss” and makes grants to “support an array of initiatives that promote workforce diversity, accessibility, and inclusion.” Its four grantmaking funds address early impact, exceptional scholars, inclusive innovation and visionary scholars. The foundation also runs two signature programs, Vision Fair, a vision screening program, and InVisions, “a change-makers platform and national contest that empowers young people, ages 14-to-18 and 19-to-24, respectively, to build a more inclusive & equitable society through entrepreneurship and innovation.”
Grants for Public Health, Disabilities, Education, Work and Opportunity
The Fox Family Foundation’s grantmaking focuses on education, opportunity and services for disabled people, with a strong emphasis on vision impairment.
Grants stemming from Fox’s Early Impact Fund support initiatives for “vision screenings and comprehensive eye exams for low-income community-members, especially for those ranging from 6-months through school-age years.” Grantmaking targets ophthalmology and optometry service providers in “vision deserts,” across the U.S.
The Exceptional Scholars Fund supports programs for blind and visually impaired students that “build incentives for educational and skill attainment as well as inclusive hiring practices.”
Also focusing on visually impaired populations, Fox’s Inclusive Innovation Fund invests in “projects in med-tech, ed-tech, wearables, and assistive-tech that facilitate independent living and the creation of an inclusive society.”
The foundation’s Visionary Scholars Fund works to increase career and employment opportunities for people with vision impairment, as well as career opportunities in special education and other “fields that directly benefit blind and visually impaired people.
Prominent among Fox’s grantees is the Southern California Eye Institute, which receives ongoing support. Other grantees in the Los Angeles area include Wayfinder Family Services, the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic, the Blind Children’s Center, the Disability Community Resource Center and the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Palo Alto. Elsewhere, the foundation supports the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia and Big Picture Learning, a national network of 275 schools that focus on equity and “student-centered” learning.
The Fox Family Foundation also runs two signature programs:
InVisions, set to launch in early 2025, will challenge young people between the ages of 14 and 24 to create “with inclusive and universal design principals.” Participating teams may design, plan and pitch a “prototype for inclusive solutions” to win “cash and prizes,” as well as publicity for their ideas. The program also features ten online learning modules on disability rights and inclusion, as well as information on “how to pitch your accessible product or service.” Check back with this program page for updates on this contest.
Vision Fair was a 2022 collaboration vision screeners and over 100 volunteers that provided free vision screenings and glasses to 1,000 community members in the Los Angeles area.
Finally, the Fox Fellows program “awards fellowships to remarkable individuals, both to candidates who are blind and low-vision candidates as well as to individuals who have applied themselves into fields that directly engage, interact and seek to improve positive outcomes for the disability community.” The foundation does not offer specific guidelines or amounts regarding its fellowships, but invites candidates to email the foundation at info@foxgiving.org for additional information about the program and application process. Profiles of past fellows are available here.
Important Grant Details:
According to its application page, the Robert A. Fox Family Foundation awards grants ranging from $5,000 to $75,000.
This foundation maintains a strong focus on services, education and innovations to support visually-impaired people.
California is the main site of its grantmaking; only a few grants have gone to organizations in other parts of the U.S.
Grantmaking appears to have tapered off in recent years, although the foundation has not announced a change in its giving strategy and continues to accept applications for funding.
To apply for a grant, submit a letter of inquiry of four pages or less to the foundation via email at info@foxgiving.org. Letters may be submitted at any time, but the review process may take up to six months. Grant application guidelines are provided on the application page.
For additional information on past grantmaking see the foundation’s grantee spotlight page or its recent annual report.
Direct general inquiries to the Fox Family Foundation via email at info@foxgiving.org.
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