Taube Philanthropies
/OVERVIEW: Taube Philanthropies is the philanthropic vehicle of Tad Taube. It is composed of two separate foundations, Taube Family Foundation and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture and supports Jewish causes, arts and culture, health, and higher education. Its grantmaking focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland, and Israel.
IP TAKE: While Taube prioritizes Jewish giving, its foundation supports a variety of causes; however, grantseekers will be most successful if the project touches on more than one giving area, especially if one of those areas is Jewish-related.
Grantseekers outside the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland, or Israel will find it more difficult to acquire support than those from within the funder’s geographic focus area. Taube’s giving is very geographically targeted, so don’t apply unless you can make a convincing case for how your work may benefit the population living in one of these three places.
Taube welcomes letters of inquiry via email at any time. While this funder is not accessible, it is approachable, accepting LOIs on occasion, and responsive, so reach out with questions as needed.
PROFILE: Taube Philanthropies consists of two separate foundations, Taube Family Foundation, which is focused on San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area, and the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, which casts a much wider net. The foundations work “to ensure that free citizens will have full opportunity for advancement of their goals and dreams.” Thaddeus "Tad" Taube was born in Poland, which his family fled to escape the Nazis in 1931. Taube arrived in the United States in the summer of 1939, just weeks before the outbreak of World War II. He later grew up in New York, and then Los Angeles. After getting his master's degree in industrial engineering from Stanford, Taube joined two Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicists to create E-H Research Laboratories, which built test instruments in Silicon Valley. He is a Giving Pledge signatory and the board president emeritus of the Koret Foundation in San Francisco. Taube Philanthropies’ grantmaking supports Jewish Peoplehood, Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland, Academia and Campus Life, Education: Buildings & Programs, Civic and Cultural Life, and Health and Wellness.
Grants for Jewish Causes
Taube conducts its grants for Jewish philanthropy through two program areas: Jewish Peoplehood and Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland.
The Jewish Peoplehood program supports work that increases a common sense of identity among Jewish people. Specifically, it “awards grants to programs and institutions devoted to building Jewish identity among diverse populations.” Under this program, Taube Philanthropies co-created a program called Strengthening Jewish Engagement for Bay Area Young Adults, which seeks “to address declining rates of Jewish identity, engagement, and support for Israel among young adults.” It also gave a $10 million grant to the University of California Berkeley to support the acquisition of a collection of Jewish art. It has also given millions to support the Bay Area Jewish community.
The Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland program works to strengthen “the institutional life of Polish Jews,” increase “awareness and appreciation of Jewish heritage and contemporary Jewish life among Jews and others,” and to cultivate a “positive interest in Poland among American Jews.” It has supported The Taube Center for the Renewal of Jewish Life in Poland’s signature program, Taube Jewish Heritage Tours, which brings Jewish people from around the world to Poland. It has also given a $2 million grant to the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute and a $1 million grant to the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Recent grantees in the Bay Area have included the Brandeis Hillel Day School, Chabad of SF, Shalom School, and Jewish Family & Children's Services, SF. Taube also helped establish the Taube Center for Jewish Studies at his alma mater Stanford, with a $2.5 million gift.
Taube Philanthropies has also given a $15 million gift to Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Israel.
Grants for Public Health and Access
Taube has given large sums to health organizations through its Health and Wellness initiative, which works to create “a better future through health and wellness care […] for the whole person across their lifespan.” Grantees under this program are generally hospitals and research centers. The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is this program’s most frequent beneficiary, receiving tens of millions in grants since 2018 to support pediatric cancer care and research and to build a new surgery center with six operating rooms. Stanford University School of Medicine and the Ronald McDonald House at Stanford have each received millions as well.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Taube has also been a funder of arts and culture through the Civic and Cultural Life program, which tends to focus on supporting the Bay Area of California. Under this program, the foundation tends to provide gifts of at least one million dollars to established cultural institutions, such as the San Francisco Opera Company, although they also fund smaller organizations focused in the Bay Area, such as the San Francisco Zoological Society. The funder has given to renovate the UC Theater in Berkeley, for example. It has also given to the Golden Gate Park Tennis Center and The UC Theatre to help reopen the theater and name the Taube Family Music Hall.
Grants for Higher Education
The Academia and Campus Life program and the Education: Buildings and Programs focus area support higher education institutions and programs. The Academia and Campus Life program “supports programs and institutions that approach research and learning from different perspectives and disciplines, but that share a commitment to excellence and to the well-being of our diverse human community.” USC Thornton School of Music received a grant under this program for their efforts to perform and preserve Polish music and to make it globally accessible. Another grant established a scholarship at Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.
Under their Education: Buildings and Programs initiative, Taube funds construction of facilities and programming at universities and museums to be used in formal and informal education efforts. Recent grantmaking in this area has focused primarily on museum spaces and exhibits, such as creating a facility to showcase horse-drawn carriages at the San Mateo County Historical Museum in Redwood, CA. Another example of recent giving is a grant to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA for the creation of the Taube Family Holocaust Education Program.
Previous higher education grantees include the Taube Polish Music Archive at the USC Thornton School of Music, create the Aaron Panken Merit Scholarships at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and help to renovate the University of Wrocław’s Taube Department of Jewish Studies.
Important Grant Details:
Foundation grants are often in the millions of dollars. View a list of past grantees on the funder’s website here and here. New grantseekers can read more about the types of programs and organizations this funder supports on its Grantee Stories page.
Traube does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding. However, it welcomes letters of inquiry, and those can be emailed at any time of the year. Direct general questions to the foundation staff at info@taubephilanthropies.org.
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