Bruce and Bridgitt Bertram Evans
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Summit Partners, Managing Director
FUNDING AREAS: Education, health, arts and culture, Boston
OVERVIEW: Bruce Evans and his wife, Bridgitt Bertram Evans, do their grantmaking through the Evans Family Foundation, which made about $2.5 million in grants in a recent year. The couple's primary focus is business education at Harvard University. To a lesser extent, they support charter school education and health in Boston. Separately, Bridgitt launched an organization called Visionary Initiatives in Art to support artists.
BACKGROUND: A West Virginia native, Bruce R. Evans received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and economics from Vanderbilt University in 1981 and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Evans joined Summit Partners in 1986, an equity firm that invests in technology and scientific research.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Education is the Evans Family Foundation’s largest area of giving. In recent years, however, funding has focused on a few key recipients. Bruce Evans chairs the Board of Trust at Vanderbilt University, and the Evans recently gave the school $20 million to “support university initiatives focused on the undergraduate living–learning experience, as well as leadership positions in the School of Engineering.” The couple has also provided ongoing support to Harvard’s Business School, where Bruce earned his MBA, and Boston’s Match Charter Public School.
PUBLIC HEALTH: Via their foundation, the Evanses support Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
ARTS & CULTURE: Bridgitt has a passion for the arts, and is is an avid collector of contemporary art. She cofounded VIA or Visionary Initiatives in Art, through which she's helped build a nationwide collective of art patrons who fund arts projects. The couple through their Evans Family Foundation has also recently supported arts organizations such as Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
BOSTON COMMUNITY: Grantmaking has slowed in this area over the past few years, but the Evans Family Foundation’s past grantees include the Friends of Public Garden, Victory Programs, a "Boston-based multi-service agency providing individualized treatment programs to people recovering from alcohol and drug addiction," and the One Fund Boston, an organization established after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013.
LOOKING FORWARD: Evans is only in his 50s and still very much engaged in business. So far, the couple's philanthropy has stuck close to home in Boston and to other regions where the family has ties. Bridgitt's arts work is worth keeping an eye on.
CONTACT:
Evans Family Foundation
31 St. James Ave., No. 740
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 933-3620
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