Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation supports public health, disease research, Jewish causes, arts and culture, education and work and opportunity with a strong focus on the greater New York City area.

IP TAKE: The Och Family Foundation tends to provide ongoing support to a small cohort of grantees in the foundation’s areas of grantmaking interest, especially those at which Daniel Och serves as a trustee.

This funder is not accessible or transparent; it does not maintain a website or employ a formal staff, making it exceedingly difficult to gain its attention. An address and phone number are provided below, but it is not approachable given its lack of staff. It does not have submission deadlines.

PROFILE: Based in Florham Park, New Jersey, the Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation was founded by the billionaire hedge fund manager Daniel Och and his wife, Jane. Daniel Och was raised in New Jersey and studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Och worked for several years at Goldman Sachs. With a $100 million investment from the brothers Dirk, Daniel and Robert Ziff, Och founded Och-Ziff Capital management in 1994. Following a 2016 bribery scandal in which Och-Ziff that involved hefty fines for the firm’s having paid off several U.S. government officials, Och stepped down from leadership roles at Och-Ziff. In 2020, he founded a new hedge fund, AJAX I. Och currently runs a family office, Willoughby Capital. Over the years, Och has served on the boards of New York City nonprofits including Endeavor, the Robin Hood Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art and New York Presbyterian Hospital. The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation maintains a low profile and does not appear to employ a formal staff, limiting information about its specific grantmaking practices. Tax filings indicate interest in health, arts and culture, Jewish causes, education and economic opportunity.

Grants for Public Health and Diseases

According to recent tax filings, public health and disease research make up the largest area of the Och Family Foundation’s grantmaking. Daniel Och serves on the board of New York Presbyterian Hospital, home of the Och Spine Hospital, which recently received a gift of $50 million from the Och Foundation. RIP Medical Debt, an organization that helps wipe out medical debt, received a $575,000 gift in 2023. Other health grantees include New York City’s Icahn School of Medicine, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Colorado’s Aspen Valley Hospital and the Mount Sinai Medical Center of Miami Beach, Florida.

Grants for Arts and Culture

Arts and culture comprise another large portion of the Och Family Foundation’s grantmaking. The foundation has provided ongoing support to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, where Daniel Och serves on the board of trustees, and which recently received a grant of $3.7 million. Other recent grantees include New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Aspen Art Museum and New York City’s Central Park Conservancy.

Grants for Jewish Causes

The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation does not name specific areas of focus for its Jewish grantmaking. In a recent year, the foundation made grants of $1 million or more to the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York, the Birthright Israel Foundation and Beth-El Synagogue in New Rochelle, New York. Other Jewish grantees include the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Anti-Defamation League and Camp Ramah, a Jewish summer camp for children in the Berkshire Mountains. In New Jersey, the foundation has provided ongoing support and major gifts to the Golda Och Academy, a Jewish day school that was renamed for Och’s mother after a $15 million donation at the time of her death in 2010. More recently, the foundation gave the school $10 million, bankrolling the Dr. Michael Och Fund for Faculty Excellence, which was established in memory of Och’s father.

Grants for K-12 and Higher Education

In recent years, education has been a smaller area of grantmaking for the Och Family Foundation, which gives to both K-12 and higher education. Grantmaking in the K-12 arena mainly goes to private and charter schools in the greater New York City area, including Harlem Village Academies, the School in the Square and the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education. In Philadelphia, the foundation has given to Say Yes to Education, which offers a range of support services to at-risk urban students. Recent higher education funding has gone to the University of Pennsylvania, which is Daniel Och’s alma mater, and where the foundation funds the Daniel S. Och Professorship in Cell and Developmental Biology. The foundation has also bankrolled the Och Initiative for Women in Finance at the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School. The initiative “encourages Ross undergraduates to explore careers in finance through outreach, education, and engagement.”  

Grants for Work and Opportunity, Housing and Food Systems

The Och Family Foundation’s grantmaking for work and opportunity consists mainly of its ongoing support to New York City’s Robin Hood Foundation, which as received upwards of $1 million annually over the past several years. Daniel Och is one of the founders of the organization and continues to serve on its board. Robin Hood is one of New York’s leading human services charities, working to define and execute “the most impactful and scalable solutions to lift families out of poverty in New York City.”

Important Grant Details:

The Och Family Foundation gave away over $20 million in a recent year, with grants ranging from $10,000 to $5 million. The foundation occasionally makes larger gifts of $10 million or more to organizations with which Daniel Och is personally involved. Grantmaking appears to prioritize but is not strictly limited to the New York City area. The foundation also tends to give to the same grantees year after year in its areas of grantmaking focus.

The Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. This foundation does not maintain an online presence or employ a formal staff, making it exceedingly difficult to gain its attention. An address and phone number are provided below.

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CONTACT:

Jane and Daniel Och Family Foundation

c/o UE Llc.

Columbia Tpke. Ste 2

Florham Park, NJ 07932

(973) 408-6700