Sergey Brin Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Sergey Brin Family Foundation is the private foundation for Google co-founder Sergey Brin. It supports work in Parkinson’s research, science research, health and diseases, education, Jewish causes, arts and culture, disaster relief, the environment and climate change, economic opportunity, and the Bay Area.
IP TAKE: For a funder this large, there’s a surprising lack of disclosure and transparency. This approach reflects Brin’s desire to fly under the radar. The foundation does not maintain a website or provide a means of contact, and it does not outline a clear funding strategy, which limits potential partners and grantees from engaging with the foundation.
This is not yet a collaborative funder, except in the area’s of science research and Parkinson’s research, two areas dear to its founder. Additionally, the Brin Family Foundation is inaccessible and does not appear to accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. It does not even invite LOIs from potential grantees whose mission overlaps with the foundation’s unstated giving priorities, preferring a proactive approach to grantmaking.
PROFILE: Established in 2015, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation is the private foundation for Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Born in Russia in 1979, Brin and his family fled to the United States to escape Jewish persecution. He received a mathematics and computer science degree from the University of Maryland at College Park, and later enrolled at Stanford University, where he met Larry Page. The duo co-founded Google in 1998, and Brin served as president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until 2019. Brin has appeared on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of the 50 most generous philanthropists.
The Brin Family Foundation does not maintain a website or provide any information about its funding priorities or the types of organizations it looks to support. However, tax records reveal that its giving overlaps with Brin’s personal interests, which include Parkinson’s and science research, health and diseases, education, Jewish causes, arts and culture, disaster relief, the environment and climate change, economic opportunity, and the Bay Area.
Grants for Diseases, Public Health and Access, and Mental Health
In lieu of a website to guide grantmaking strategies, tax filings reveal a mix of grantmaking interests. Health grants take the lionshare of Brin funding with an emphasis on Parkinson’s research, among other interests, such as bipolar disorder, children’s health and more general medical research.
Giving for Parkinson’s research has accounted for almost half of all grants annually. Brin has donated over $1 billion to research into the disease, much of which has gone to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, including $101 million in 2021 and $127 million in 2022. Brin has written about his personal dealings with Parkinson's—a disease that afflicted both his mother and great aunt.
Via the foundation, Brin has supported the Milken Institute (also toward Parkinson's research), and Parkinson's Institute and Clinical Center. Through its Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s initiative, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation has also given $161 million to 21 research teams at 60 institutions throughout the US and abroad. It has also given a $20.4 million grant to the Parkinson's Foundation.
Brin, along with Roblox founder David Baszucki and Keystone Capital chairman Kent Dauten, contributed a combined $150 million for research and treatment of bipolar disorder.
The foundation also gave $100 million for COVID-19 relief during the coronavirus pandemic, and $15.2 million to National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in 2021.
Other groups that have received support include $26.2 million to Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health in 2020, over $10 million to La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and $5 million to Healthcorps.
The Russian Medical Fund received almost $32 million in 2018.
Other health-related grantmaking through this foundation centers on organizations in the Bay Area, such as Tipping Point Community and Homeless Prenatal Program, among others. Related health grantees also include Profectum Foundation, CARE, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Doctors for You - USA, Cystic Fibrosis Trust,
Grants for Science Research
Much of Brin’s grantmaking for science research overlaps with medical research, blurring the lines between his health and research grants.
Although he is no longer on the board, Brin, along with Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Art Levinson, Anne Wojcicki and Yuri Milner, created the Breakthrough Prize in 2013, a $3 million prize awarded to one physics project and six life sciences projects annually, for a total of $21 million a year. Brin has provided ongoing support to the organization. For more information, see the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.
Brin’s science research giving also supports institutions working on nanoparticles, SARS or “AI for prostate cancer.”
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging, which has the goal to “end the threat of age-related disease,” has received steady support over the years totaling almost $5 million.
Grants for Jewish Causes
This funder’s grants for Jewish causes tend to focus on either organizations with which it’s founder is affiliated or on organizations dedicated to the overlap between antiracism, antisemitism and Jewish ideas of justice.
When Brin came with his family to the United States to escape antisemitism, he received help from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He later returned the favor with a $1 million donation to the organization. Brin has served on the HIAS board and also set up a blog on the site called My Story to encourage immigrants to share their experiences.
Other Jewish organizations that have received funding in recent years include Jewish Vocational Service and Jewish Family and Children’s Services, both of San Francisco.
In the justice and antisemitism space, grantees include Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, as well as Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, Measures for Justice Institute,
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education, and Community Development
Brin’s giving for education has increased significantly over the last several years, with large sums going to college readiness initiatives and teacher education. Some themes within this area include entrepreneurship and STEM, particularly computer literacy and mathematics.
Youth development and K-12 ecipients include the Citizen Schools, an organization that works to expand the school day for middle school students living in poverty, as well as BUILD, a four-year program that uses entrepreneurship to motivate low-income students through high school and college.
Brin also supported Beyond 12 Education, California’s Alder Graduate School of Education, Syracuse University and Carnegie Mellon University. The foundation has sent regular million-dollar grants to Stanford University, Brin’s alma mater, as well as the University of California, Berkeley.
The foundation joined with Brin’s father and mother, Michael and Eugenia, to give $9 million to establish a performing dance center under the family name at the University of Maryland, where Michael is an emeritus professor in mathematics and Sergey got his bachelor’s degree, and where the family gave $4.75 million in 2021 to establish the Brin Mathematics Center.
The foundation has directed millions toward a donor-advised fund, some of which has gone to Youth Villages, which provides "help for children and young people across the United States who face a wide range of emotional, mental and behavioral problems," as well as Wendy's Wonderful Kids, which deals with adoption.
Other education groups that have received support include 826 Valencia, Act Now Coalition, Ravenswood Education Foundation, Excellence in Education Foundation for PGCPS, and PowerMyLearning, to help support computer literacy.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Sergey Brin Family Foundation's grantmaking does not appear to prioritize arts and culture at this time. It has, however, given to the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation, the Turrell Art Foundation and the Burning Man Project. The Prince Georges County Memorial Library System in Upper Marlboro, Maryland has seen support as well.
Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief, and Immigrants and Refugees
Grants in these areas tend to focus on on the overlap between humanitarian disaster aid and stemming refugee crises. There appears to be some interest in immigrant rights, Brin himself an immigrant to the U.S. from the former U.S.S.R.
Brin founded Global Support and Development, a disaster-relief organization that uses high-tech systems to rapidly deliver humanitarian assistance during high-profile disasters. Other disaster relief aid includes Yachtaid Global and the World Central Kitchen.
The Brin Family Foundation has also given at least seven figures to Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.
Grantees focused on immigrants include Northwest Immigrant Rights Project and Casa De Maryland.
Grants for Climate Change and Environment
While it does not appear to be one of the foundation’s highest priorities, Brin has demonstrated broad interest in climate change, having funded research at Maastricht University on lab-created beef in the early 2010s and in 2021, he committed $40 million to the think tank and regrantor Climate Imperative. The foundation has also supported Neglected Climate Opportunities Fund and European Climate Foundation.
Grants for Economic Development
The Brin Family Foundation appears to give to anti-poverty, economic mobility and programs that build entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. There is also some funding here for women’s economic empowerment, but funding has been minimal, though that may change in the future.
Brin is a strong supporter of Ashoka, a group that brings together entrepreneurs to produce innovative solutions to problems relating to a wide variety of social issues, including women's issues, education and the environment. Through his foundation, Brin has also supported Management Leadership for Tomorrow and the Center for Employment Opportunities. The foundation gave $70 million to antipoverty collaborative Blue Meridian in 2021. Other groups that have received support include Faith in Texas, First Place for Youth, New Door Ventures, and Per Scholas.
Grants for Criminal Justice and Violence Prevention
While they do not see the types of support that areas receive, criminal justice reform and violence prevention seem to be on the foundation’s radar lately with groups across the country receiving modest sums in recent years.
Criminal justice grantees include the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, and Fresh Lifelines for Youth, Impact Justice, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Concerns of Police Survivors, Policing Equity, (Purpose. Dignity. Action.), and the Essie Justice Group.
Violence prevention grants tend to focus on preventing violence against women and children, but grants here are minimal. Grantees in this space include The One Love Foundation in Honor of Yeardley Love and Akron, Ohio’s Battered Women’s Shelter, among others.
Grants for Bay Area
While much of the foundation’s giving goes to national and, occasionally, international organizations, though about two-thirds of all the foundation’s grants are made in California.
Through his foundation, Brin has provided significant support to the Tipping Point Community, which is trying to eliminate poverty in the Bay Area, as well as smaller donations to other groups working to conquer poverty and hunger. Among these groups are Meals on Wheels San Francisco, the Full Circle Fund, the Boy's and Girl's Clubs of the Peninsula and a number of homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the area. It has also supported Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, La Cocina, as well as the Vera Institute of Justice and Anti-Recidivism Coalition. A variety of local private and gifted schools have received some funding here as well.
Important Grant Details:
The foundation held nearly $3 billion in assets as of 2022. It gives away over $500 million annually. Grant sizes vary wildly, from just a few thousand up to the tens of millions. The most common amount is somewhere around $200,000.
It keeps a low presence and does not have a website. It does not appear to accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. New grantseekers can try to contact the foundation either at the address and phone number below or at the Brin family office, Bayshore Global Management.
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CONTACT:
Sergey Brin Family Foundation
c/o Pacific Foundation Services
1660 Bush Street, No. 300
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-561-6540
