Kahle-Austin Foundation

OVERVIEW: Kahle-Austin’s main recipients are the Internet Archive and the San Francisco Center for the Book, which are organizations led by the foundation’s founders.

IP TAKE: The Kahle-Austin Foundation is a low-profile funder that mainly supports the specific interests of its founders; Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive, and Mary Austin established the San Francisco Center for the book. To a lesser extent, this foundation supports free internet media, education and arts and culture, prioritizing the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

Kahle-Austin does not operate a website, but interested grantseekers can keep up with Brewster Kahle’s philanthropic interests by checking in with his personal blog and social media accounts. This is not an accessible or transparent funder, but call them to learn more about how giving may be evolving.

PROFILE: Based in San Francisco, the Kahle-Austin Foundation was established in 1998 by the computer scientist Brewster Kahle and his wife, Mary Austin. Kahle studied at MIT and helped start Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker, serving as lead engineer for six years. In 1989, Kahle invented the Internet’s first publishing system, the WAIS system and founded WAIS Inc., a pioneering electronic publishing company. WAIS Inc. was sold to America Online in 1995 for $15 million. Another project, Alexa Internet, which logged Internet traffic patterns and recommended sites, went to Amazon for $250 million in 1999. The Kahle-Austin Foundation does not maintain a website but has demonstrated a strong interest in supporting free internet media. Other interests include education and arts and culture.

Grants for Journalism and Media

Brewster Kahle is the founder and head digital librarian of the Internet Archive, a “digital library of internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.” The Internet Archive is the Kahle-Austin Foundation’s largest grant recipient. Other past media grantees include Public Knowledge, “a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based public interest group that is involved in intellectual property law, competition, and choice in the digital marketplace,” and the Free Software Foundation, “a nonprofit organization founded to support the free software movement, which promotes the universal freedom to study.”

Grants for Education

The Kahle Foundation does not outline specific goals for its education grantmaking, but tax filings suggest an interest in educational technology. One of its main recipients in recent years is the Frank Foundation, which supports which technology-based solutions to problems in education. Other education grantees include Oberlin College, Wellesley College, Oberlin College, San Francisco’s Urban High School and the Presidio Hill School in San Francisco.

Grants for Arts and Culture

Mary Austin is a collector of artists’ books and has over 2,000 pieces in her collection. She co-founded and is the board president of the San Francisco Center for the Book, which offers “book arts classes, lectures and exhibitions for Bay Area Artists,” and more than 400 workshops annually, with letterpress printing, bookbinding, and general bookmaking instruction as priorities. The Center has received ongoing support from the Kahle-Austin Foundation. Other past arts grantees include the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, the Center for Art In Translation, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Bread and Puppet Theatre in Vermont and the San Francisco Art Institute.

Other Grantmaking Opportunities

Through their foundation, Brewster Kahle and Mary Austin established Kahle-Austin Foundation House, which provides affordable housing to nonprofit employees, and which is located near the Internet Archive. Little has been said about this program since 2013, however.

Important Grant Details:

This funder’s grantmaking has fluctuated between $1.6 and $7 million in recent years. Grants are generally awarded in amounts of up to $500,000, with the exception of the Internet Archive, which has received millions over the years. The foundation’s average grant size is about $15,000. Kahle-Austin’s grants tend to provide ongoing support to a select group of grantees with which Brewster Kahle and Mary Austin are affiliated, and grantmaking appears to prioritize organizations operating in the San Francisco Bay area. Grantmaking is largely conducted through the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund program.

This funder does not maintain a website or run an open application program. Interested grantseekers should read Brewster Kahle’s personal blog for updates on his current philanthropic interests.

PEOPLE:

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).

CONTACT:

KahleAustin Foundation

513B Simonds Loop

San Francisco, CA 94129

(415) 931-8766