Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation supports hospitals and cultural institutions in New York City.

IP TAKE: This is not an accessible or approachable funder. It restricts transparency about its grantmaking strategies and investments. Working predominantly in the Northeast, this funder’s education grants typically invest in elite, private secondary schools. It does not maintain a website or have much of a web presence, which makes it difficult for grant seekers to get on the foundation’s radar. However, contact the foundation at the number provided below if you have more questions about how it chooses what to fund.

Kravis already has a broad-ranging portfolio of philanthropy, so it is likely that his giving trends will continue in much the same pattern. There are certainly opportunities for him to expand, particularly in other communities where he spends time or has personal connections, such as Palm Beach, Florida, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Vail, Colorado. It’s also possible that the Kravis Leadership Prize could be replicated at Columbia or Rockefeller College, or expand beyond just education, creating an opportunity for Kravis to do more in areas like global health and development.

PROFILE: Based in New York City, the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation was established by Henry Kravis, a co-founder of the investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., and his wife, Marie-Josée. The son of a Jewish oil engineer from Oklahoma, Henry Kravis graduated from Claremont McKenna College and Columbia Business School before going to work at Bear Stearns, where he worked for roughly 7 years before leaving to form his own firm. He and his wife Marie-Josee Kravis, a prominent Canadian economist, are both active board members for a number of health, educational, and cultural institutions. The foundation supports many prestigious hospitals and cultural institutions in New York City. Little is known about the foundation’s broader priorities given its lack of web presence.

Grants for K-12 Education

In the area of K-12 education, this funder has made significant capital grants to elite private schools, among them the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, which established the Henry R. Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching with support from the Kravis Foundation. It also supports higher education extensively.

In the realm of higher education, the Kravis Foundation also makes substantial donations to a handful of universities, with which the family may have personal connections, including Columbia, Rockefeller University, and Claremont McKenna College.

Grants for Public Health and Diseases

The Kravis Foundation supports major medical institutions and universities in the areas of disease research and health care. In 2016, Kravis made a $10 million donation to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and he donated another $100 million in 2022 to support the Cancer Ecosystems Project, which studies caner relapse. The foundation gave Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center $40 million to establish the Marie-Josée Kravis Center for Cancer Immunobiology in 2023. Other grantees include Johns Hopkins University, Rockefeller University, and Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

Grants for Arts and Culture

The Kravis Foundation’s arts grantmaking primarily takes the form of donations to prominent cultural institutions in New York City, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Philharmonic-Symphony Society, and the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts. It has also supported a handful of institutions beyond New York City, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. However, all grants for the arts prioritize established and renowned institutions rather than small or community outfits.

Marie-Josee Kravis is also the president of New York’s Museum of Modern Art Board of Trustees. They have given smaller donations to museums such as the Met, the Churchill Museum, the Whitney, and the Smithsonian, and other cultural organizations such as the National Actors Theatre, the Lincoln Center Theatre, Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library, New York public TV, Playwrights Horizons, and several Jewish cultural organizations. These donations are generally centered in New York, though a number have been to organizations based in DC or other areas.

Grants for New York City

The foundation makes grants for NYC across all of its interest areas. Kravis has been a major donor to the Robin Hood Foundation, where Marie-Josee sits on the board. Kravis himself is a board member and former co-chair of the Partnership for New York City, and is the creator of the New York City Investment Fund, a non-profit organization to create jobs and new business in the city. He also funds inner-city scholarship programs and other youth development services in New York, particularly those that focus on education, and support a number of historic preservation societies as well.

Important Grant Details:

Grants generally range from $10,000 to $100,000, but the foundation sometimes makes donations of millions of dollars to select institutions. This foundation does not maintain a website. General inquiries may be directed to its New York City office. Contact information is provided below. 

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CONTACT:

Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Foundation

730 Fifth Ave., 8th Fl.

New York, NY 10019

Telephone: (212) 271-9933