444S Foundation
/444S Foundation
OVERVIEW: The 444S Foundation primarily funds grantmaking related to environmental preservation, including wildlands and wildlife protection efforts. This also includes northern wildlands and forests.
IP TAKE: The foundation lacks transparency, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities.
PROFILE: Established in 1997, the 444S Foundation is steered by Cynthia Wayburn and other family members. Cynthia is a daughter of Edgar and Peggy Wayburn. The foundation does not maintain a website, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities. According to tax records, the 444S Foundation primarily funds grantmaking related to environmental preservation, including wildlands and wildlife protection efforts. This also includes northern wildlands and forests.
In life, Edgar was a major conservationist. He joined the Sierra Club in 1939 and served on its board from 1957 to 1994. In addition to his conservation work, Wayburn taught for more than 40 years, first at Stanford Medical School and then at the University of California at San Francisco. "I have loved medicine and conservation," he told the journal of the San Francisco Medical Society. "In one sense, my involvement with both might be summed up in a single word: survival. Medicine is concerned with the short-term survival of the human species, conservation with the long-term survival of the human and other species, as well. We are all related."
Grants range from $15,000 to $204,500. In a recent fiscal year, the foundation gave away around $1.7 million. Past grantees include Wilderness Society, Endangered Species Coalition, Earthjustice, Alaska Wilderness League, Oceana, Tides Canada, and Alaska Marine Conservation.
Important Grant Information
The foundation keeps a low profile and does not accept unsolicited proposals.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
CONTACT:
Lester and Bernice Smith Foundation
PO Box 3010
Bellevue, WA 98009
