Bedari Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Bedari Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to using its experience and resources to enable significant cultural shifts in the fields of mental health and wellness, community displacement, and environmental conservation.
IP TAKE: This funder does not maintain a website and maintains and exceptionally low profile. Bedari appears to be a highly targeted funder that previews to focus on a few major projects at a time. This is not a funder for small or grassroots organizations. Bedari researches who to fund rather than accepting proposals. Finding a direct connection to Bedari’s founders will be key here.
PROFILE: The Bedari Foundation, formerly the Matthew and Jennifer Harris Family Foundation, was established in 2011. It was founded by businessman Matthew “Matt” Harris and his wife Jennifer, who worked in public relations. Matt Harris is a founding partner of Global Infrastructure Partners, one of the world’s leading infrastructure investment firms. Matt also founded Bedari, an impact company innovating at the intersection of investment, philanthropy and sustainability. Matt holds a B.A. in Political Science (cum laude) from the UCLA. He serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy, and is a member of the UCLA College of Social Sciences Dean’s Advisory Board.
The Bedari Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to using its experience and resources to enable significant cultural shifts in the fields of mental health and wellness, community displacement, and environmental conservation.
Matthew and Jennifer Harris are on the board of World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), an important partner. The Bedari Foundation strives to instill the mindfulness necessary to help solve mental health issues such as addiction, depression and trauma and environmental issues such as depletion of species, global warming and over-consumption. The foundation explains that it “champions and encourages a philosophy of interconnected well-being and invests in and supports programs that further these ideals through action and education.”
Grants for Environmental Conservation
The Bedari Foundation partnered with the Royal Government of Bhutan and the World Wildlife Fund to help build on a 40-year relationship with the Kingdom of Bhutan in the creation of Bhutan for Life, a “transition fund comprising public and private resources that will allow Bhutan to continue to protect its remarkable system of parks forever.” The Bedari Foundation also works with Karingani Game Reserve located in southwestern Mozambique at the junction of the Kruger National Park in South Africa and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique. The Bedari Foundation is also a major supporter of Karingani Game Reserve, a 350,000 acre “positive impact sanctuary” in Mozambique. Bedari partners with other NGOs to provide critical resources to sustain a conservation area that “not only greatly increases dedicated wildlife management but also sustainable protection through community education and involvement and infrastructure development.”
Grants for Mental Health
While “health and wellness” is a stated priority of the Bedari Foundation, it does not seem to have any major initiatives in the field. The foundation states that it “strives to instill the mindfulness necessary to help solve mental health issues such as addiction, depression and trauma and environmental issues such as depletion of species, global warming and over-consumption.” Bedari champions and encourages a philosophy of interconnected wellbeing and invests in and supports programs that further these ideals through action and education. Past grantees have included American Foundation for Addiction Research, Equal Justice Initiative, and Foundation for Santa Barbara High School. In 2019, the UCLA Bedari Foundation gave UCLA a $20 million dollar grant to establish the world’s first interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to kindness, which will explore, for instance, the impact of kindness on depression reduction, as well as its impact on cancer risk and cardiovascular disease.
Important Grant Details:
Bedari gave away about $5.5 million in a recent year. Grants range from $100,000 to 500,000. In a recent fiscal year, the foundation gave away around $800,000. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Bedari Foundation is proactive in its grantmaking and does not accept unsolicited proposals. An address and phone number are provided below.
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CONTACT:
Bedari Foundation
c/o Global Infrastructure Management
1345 Avenue of the Americas, 30th floor
New York, NY 10105
(212) 3158143
