Einhorn Collaborative
/OVERVIEW: The Einhorn Collaborative is a foundation that supports infant and childhood health and development, parenting, youth programs, and K-12 education. It also supports pluralism and programs to bridge partisan and cultural divides.
IP TAKE: This is a mid-sized funder with influence that exceeds its assets, thanks to its commitment to working collaboratively within the philanthropic sector. Einhorn is known to fund and sometimes found pooled funds with some of the largest U.S. philanthropies, including the Hewlett Foundation and the Walmart Foundation. Einhorn believes that society is “suffering from a crisis of connection” in an era of hyper-individualism, social isolation, partisanship, and hate.
The foundation selects its grantees and partnerships internally; it is not accessible to grantseekers, and spells out clearly at its website that “all grantmaking is by invitation.” Occasionally one of Einhorn’s funding collaboratives opens one-time calls for submissions, but these are rare instances. Einhorn features news items and articles about some of its grantees at its website, but it does not host a grants database, and is not particularly transparent about its financials. All told, Einhorn is a moonshot funder for grantseekers, but it’s an important foundation to know about for those working in the niche areas of pluralism, civics, and early childhood development.
PROFILE: Established as Einhorn Family Charitable Trust in 2002, the Einhorn Collaborative seeks to address “America’s growing crisis of connection.” David Einhorn, the organization’s founder and trustee, is the founder of Greenlight Capital, a hedge fund. David has played an active role in New York City philanthropy, having served as a board member at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Robin Hood Foundation and City Year. His wife, Cheryl, is a journalist who has served on boards at Facing History and Ourselves and the Solutions Journalism Network’s Advisory Board. The trust’s founding goal was to bring people from different social and cultural backgrounds together and to use “openness and kindness to solve our nation’s most difficult social problems.”
The Einhorn Collaborative’s 990s show that grantmaking in recent years totaled less than $5 million annually. However, grants are funded not only by the Collaborative, but by the other philanthropic vehicles of David Einhorn. This makes it difficult to assess Einhorn’s total philanthropic footprint, which might be significantly larger than it appears. The website states: “Funding for Einhorn Collaborative’s grantee partners and collaborations comes from Einhorn Collaborative, from the Einhorn Family Fund at J.P. Morgan Charitable Giving Fund and National Philanthropic Trust, and from other giving vehicles directed by David Einhorn.”
Previous funding interests included all aspects of education, New York City, civics and violence prevention, but as the Collaborative has expanded, so too has its funding interests. It current focus areas include three broadly interconnected areas: Bonding, Bridging, and Building, which correspond to infant and early childhood development (bonding), youth services and programs (bridging), and pluralism, civics, and narrative change (building).
Grants for Early Childhood Education and Public Health and Access
Falling under its Bonding initiative, the Collaborative’s parenting, early childhood, and pediatric health grants focus on helping parents and caregivers foster the healthy development of children in the early stages of life. Its Pediatrics Supporting Parents initiative works to leverage “pediatric well-visits as an opportunity to promote and support children’s social and emotional development and nurturing parent-child relationships.” Past grantees in the area of early childhood education include Jumpstart, which received funding for its language, literacy and social-emotional programs for preschool children in low-income communities; and Thirty Million Words, which received a grant for evidence-based interventions in early learning environments.
Grant amounts are often substantial, reaching to over $5 million. Most grants, however, have fallen in the $100,000 to $500,000 range. The Collaborative does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding.
Grants for K-12 Education and Higher Education
Einhorn’s Bridging initiative focuses “on providing adolescents with experiences to develop lifelong skills of perspective-taking and bridge-building.” It collaborates with Cornell University’s David M. Einhorn Center “to embed community-engaged learning into traditionally siloed academic and co-curricular experiences of every undergraduate across multiple colleges and campus life units.” Einhorn’s K-12 focus also actively seeks to develop “a collaborative with partners to nurture and support young people’s interest and ability to engage as active citizens, form positive relationships across difference, and proactively help America heal, repair, and rebuild.”
Past K-12 grantees include the Ashoka Start Empathy initiative, which received support for its program teaching empathy as a core skill, and School Retool, which received funding for its professional development fellowship for educators and school leaders. Past grantees include Cornell University, Columbia University, New York University, Yale University, the University of California Berkeley and the University of Chicago.
Grants for Violence Prevention, Civics and Community Development
Einhorn’s Building initiative works to create “a more relational and pluralist culture in America to help people prioritize human connection, see our shared humanity, and embrace our differences.” It collaborates with other funders in its New Pluralists initiative, which is “focused on supporting the growing field of practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and innovators working to foster a culture of pluralism in America.” Grants through this initiative prioritize experimentation, collaboration, research, and the creation of practical resources.
Previous grantees in the civics, narrative change and violence prevention space included Futures Without Violence, which received support for its work ending violence against women and children; and Seeds of Peace, which received a grant for its work helping educators and young people build the skills and relationships crucial for peace-building.
Grants for New York City
While it is not a stated funding priority, Einhorn has supported groups and projects in New York City since its founding, and has given away hundreds of millions in grants.
Past New York area grantees include Columbia University Medical Center, the Future Project, New York University, Storycorps and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Until it begins making grants again, the trust is engaging in “learning activities” to inform future strategies and welcomes input from nonprofits working in its past areas of interest. Grantees here tend to be established and large.
Important Grant Details:
Einhorn does not accept unsolicited grant proposals or letters of inquiry. Its contact form directs media inquiries to chi@einhorncollaborative.org, and general questions to hello@einhorncollaborative.org.
In the past, Einhorn’s grants have ranged from $100,000 to several million dollars.
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