Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Tauber Family Foundation supports mental health, Jewish causes, disease research, scientific research and higher education in the U.S. and Israel.
IP TAKE: Mental health appears to be this funder’s largest area of giving; it has spearheaded several research initiatives and training programs at universities in the U.S. and Israel. Jewish causes are another focus area, with support going to a broad range of arts and culture, education and human services organizations. The foundation names social justice as an area of interest, but grantmaking has dwindled in this area in recent years. Tauber’s geographic priorities include Israel and the Bay Area of California, although organizations operating in other parts of the United States have also received support.
A progressive funder, Tauber tends to provide ongoing support to a select group of grantees year after year. However, this is not an accessible foundation as it prefers to conduct proactive grantmaking, but it is responsive, so feel free to contact them with general inquiries submitted via its contact page.
PROFILE: Established in 2003, the Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation was founded by Drs. Ingrid D. Tauber and Alfred I. Tauber to memorialize their father, Dr. Laszlo N. Tauber. A Jew born in Hungary in 1915, Tauber (Sr.) was appointed chief of surgery at an International Red Cross Hospital in Budapest during World War II. In that capacity, he saved many Jews during the Holocaust by providing medical attention and forging papers to prevent their deportation. After the war, he studied neurosurgery in Stockholm. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1947 and ran a successful medical practice in Alexandria Virginia. He also made a fortune through his real estate investments. His daughter, Ingrid N. Tauber holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and obtained a M.S.in psychopharmacology in 2001. She has been in private practice for more than three decades and is also an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF. Ingrid also conducts grantmaking through the Ingrid D. Tauber Fund, established in 2012, which does not have a website.
The Tauber Family Foundation is steered by Tauber’s children and maintains offices in San Francisco, CA, North Bethesda, MD and Jerusalem, Israel. It makes grants in the areas of mental health, Jewish causes, disease research, scientific research and higher education. The foundation also names social justice as a priority, but funding has been limited in this area in recent years.
Grants for Mental Health
The Tauber Family Foundation funds mental health research, education and training with an emphasis on initiatives that “destigmatize mental health.” San Francisco’s Tipping Point Community has received ongoing support for initiatives to “ensure that mental health professionals are trained to meet the needs of the underserved.” The foundation also supported the establishment of the Child Trauma Training Institute at San Francisco’s Jewish Family and Children’s Services. In Israel, the foundation helped to establish a psychiatric rehabilitation specialization at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s School of Social Work. Other recent mental health grants have gone to San Francisco’s Access Institute for Psychological Services, the child abuse prevention organization Safe and Sound and the Jewish Social Service Agency of Rockville, Maryland.
Grants for Jewish Causes
The Tauber Family Foundation supports a broad range of organizations in the U.S. and Israel that support “Jewish identity and traditions in contemporary times.” The foundation names adult Jewish education, Holocaust education and community education as specific areas of interest.
In 2011 the Tauber Foundation helped create the Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS) Holocaust Center and the Tauber Holocaust Library. The Foundation’s dedication to Holocaust education also led to the creation of the Manovill Holocaust History Fellowship at JFCS, which educates high school students about the Holocaust and the history of genocide. In 2012, the Foundation established the Tauber Holocaust Education Fellowship to bring educators to Israel to learn new educational initiatives and to train them to be advocates and mentors for Holocaust education. Ingrid Tauber has directed seven-figure sums to the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
Other U.S. grantees include San Francisco’s Jewish Community Center, the National Yiddish Book Center, the Jewish Film Institute, the Chabad of Nashoba Valley in Massachusetts and the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center. In Israel, the foundation has supported the religious advocacy group ITIM, the Jerusalem-based human services organization Yad Ezrah and the U.S.-based PEF Israel Endowment Funds, which support a broad range of causes in Israel.
Grants for Higher Education
The Tauber Family Foundation does not name higher education as a grantmaking area of interest, but taxes reveal past support for several universities in the U.S. and Israel. A significant portion of higher education funding has supported psychology and medical education programs. In the U.S., grants have supported the University of California at Berkeley, Boston University and psychology internship programs at the University of California at San Francisco. In Israel, the foundation has provided ongoing support to psychiatric training programs at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa.
Grants for Disease Research
Tauber has demonstrated a strong commitment to breast cancer research and has provided ongoing support to Breast Cancer Prevention Partners, which conducts research and public information campaigns to expose correlations between breast cancer and environmental variables. The foundation has also supported the Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, which integrates “high impact clinical research with patient care,” and the Center for BRCA Research, which conducts studies of the BRCA gene and clinical outreach to families affected by the mutation.
Grants for Science Research
The Tauber Foundation names scientific research as an area of grantmaking interest and aims to support “protocols that advance innovative scientific investigation.” This is a smaller area of giving for Tauber; its main research recipient is Israel’s University of Haifa, where the foundation helped to establish the Tauber Bioinformatics Research Center. Smaller grants have supported the Committee of Concerned Scientists, which advocates for human rights and intellectual freedom within the fields of physical science.
Important Grant Details:
The Tauber Family Foundation makes about $6 million in grants a year. Individual grants range from $3,000 to over $1 million, with an average grant size of about $25,000. This funder tends to offer ongoing support to a select group of organizations working in its areas of interest. In the U.S., the Bay Area of California is a clear area of priority. The foundation’s grantees in Israel represent a broad range of organizations, including large research universities and smaller human services organizations.
This funder does not accept unsolicited inquiries. General inquiries may be submitted to the foundation’s staff via the organization’s contact page.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
