Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation ended all grantmaking programs in 2022. Its grantmaking interests were legal and human rights, education, the environment and arts and culture.
IP TAKE: This funder ended all grantmaking programs in 2022, when it officially closed its doors. Its legal and human rights grantmaking supported U.S. organizations involved in civic engagement, democracy, criminal justice and immigrants’ rights. Civic engagement has also been a focus of its education grants. A significant proportion of funding went to large, national organizations working in the foundation’s areas of interest.
PROFILE: The Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Foundation was established in 1961 by investment banker and philanthropist Chauncey Waddell in honor of his late wife’s father, Charles Evans Hughes, who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1930 until 1941. Based in New York, the foundation “seeks to encourage full civic participation by all Americans and works to ensure not only that political and civil rights are upheld, but also that individuals are able to exercise those rights.” Grantmaking focused on legal and human rights; environment, population, and health; education and arts and culture.
Grants for Human Rights
The Hughes Foundation’s legal and human rights grantmaking supported programs that work to protect “fundamental constitutional and human rights, particularly for those who traditionally have been disenfranchised,” as well as those that help people to assert and maintain their rights, including “assistance for those unable to afford counsel” and “legal education, especially in public interest law.” Select grantees include the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, the Legal Aid Society, Immigrant Justice Corps and the National Women’s Law Center.
Grants forK-12 Education
The Hughes Foundation’s education grantmaking supported organizations that ensure the “provision of a sound education that enables all Americans to lead productive lives and participate as active citizens.” It supported in- and out-of-school programs that improve educational opportunities for underserved students. Grantee partners include Friends of Island Academy, which offers educational opportunities for young people recently released from prison in New York City; iCivics, which provides resources and materials to civics and government teachers; and the International Folk Art Alliance, which offers arts education outreach.
Grants for the Environment
The Hughes Foundation’s environment, population and health grantmaking broadly supported organizations that recognize “that a clean, natural environment is essential to the health of individuals, communities, the economy, and society.” Its stated priorities in this area included climate change and family planning, but most of the foundation’s recent grants have gone to large national and global conservation organizations including Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Global Greengrants Fund.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Hughes Foundation’s Arts and Culture grantmaking supported “programs dedicated to preserving and expanding what is unique and best in American arts and culture.” The foundation’s priorities were music, dance and historic preservation. Grants have supported the Dallas Symphony Association, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Santa Fe Opera.
Important Grant Details:
In the last years of its grantmaking, Hughes’s grantmaking totaled between $600,000 and $800,000 a year. Grants typically ranged from $2,000 to $100,000, with an average grant size of about $25,000. Most grants supported large, well-established organizations in the foundation’s areas of grantmaking interest. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s past grantees for more information on the kinds of projects it supported, but grantmaking has concluded for this funder.
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