Ronald S. Lauder Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation works to support Jewish K-12 education, higher education and e-learning in Central and Eastern Europe through proprietary educational programs.
IP TAKE: The Lauder Foundation’s work centers on establishing and supporting Jewish education in Europe. Most of its philanthropic work consists of K-12 schools, colleges and e-learning programs that bear the Lauder name.
While the foundation is not accessible, it is approachable, inviting “young leaders with passion to inspire Jews across Europe” to reach out via the foundation’s contact page and explore grantmaking opportunities. Grants to U.S. and Israeli organizations is extremely limited.
PROFILE: Based in New York City and Berlin, Germany, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Ronald Lauder, who, with his brother, Leonard, is an heir to the Estée Lauder cosmetics company fortune. Lauder began his career at his parents’ company in the 1960s. In the 1980s, he served in the U.S. Department of Defense as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy and as Ambassador to Austria under President Ronald Reagan. He established his foundation in 1988 to invest in “the future of Jewish life in Europe” by supporting education “that prepares young Jews for personal and professional success, and that inspires active participation in Jewish life.” The foundation’s stated funding initiatives are kindergartens, schools, youth centers and camps, higher education and e-learning schools. Funding is mainly limited educational organizations that bear the Lauder name in Europe, with only a few grants each year supporting Jewish organizations working in the U.S. and Israel.
Grants for Jewish Causes and Education
The Ronald Lauder Foundation’s grantmaking is mainly limited to the support of Jewish schools in Europe. Grantmaking stems from five separate initiatives:
Lauder’s grantmaking for Jewish kindergartens provides ongoing support to a cadre of 13 named schools in nine European nations. Participant schools teach kindergarten curricula alongside Jewish culture and religion in languages including Hebrew, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovakian and Ukrainian. Recipient schools include the Lauder Nitzan Kindergarten in Berlin, the Lauder Morasha Kindergarten in Warsaw and the Lauder Orach Chaim Kindergarten in Kiev.
Grantmaking for schools consists of ongoing support for nine Lauder schools in Central and Eastern Europe that offer Jewish students opportunities “to learn, teach, contribute, inspire, grow and belong.” Projects include the Lauder Chabad School in Vienna, the Lauder Javne Jewish Community School in Budapest and the Lauder Athens Jewish Community School, among others.
The Lauder Foundation maintains that Jewish youth centers and camps offer important opportunities for the development of Jewish faith and culture for young people who may not be able to attend Jewish schools. To these ends, Lauder’s grants for youth centers and camps have supported Club Chai in Vienna, Austria; Germany’s Am Echad Summer Camps; the Lauder Lech Lecha Center in Minsk, Belarus; and the Lauder Educational Summer Camp of Poland.
The Lauder Foundation has bankrolled several institutions of higher education in Europe with the goal of educating “lay leaders, teacher and rabbis for the new generation” of Jewish communities in Europe. Lauder’s higher education projects in Berlin include JA Academy, Yeshivat Beit Zion, Midrasha and the Rabbinerseminar zu Berlin. The foundation also supports the Lauder Business School in Vienna, Austria.
The foundation’s newest initiative, e-Learning Schools, aims to provide Jewish education to European children who may not have access to Jewish religious and cultural programming in their immediate geographic area. In Poland and Greece, the foundation has funded the Lauder Morasha e-Learning Schools. The foundation plans to expand its e-learning projects to Germany, Hungary and Czechia in the coming years.
Other Grantmaking Interests
In addition to its extensive work in Europe, the Ronald Lauder Foundation makes a few grants each year to organizations in the U.S. and Israel. Recent U.S. grantees include Brooklyn’s Colel Chabad and the Congregation Beth David of Monsey, New Jersey. In Israel, Jerusalem’s Heritage House has received ongoing support.
At the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Lauder Foundation launched an Emergency Relief Program to support community organizations in and near areas of conflict to provide food, clothing, shelter and education to Ukrainian refugees.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation made about $7.2 million in grants, most of which went to the foundation’s proprietary educational projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Grants range from $75,000 to $500,000, with an average grant size of about $200,000. For additional information about the foundation’s grantmaking and educational projects, see Lauder’s individual initiative pages.
The Lauder Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications. However, the foundation invites “young leaders with passion to inspire Jews across Europe” to submit a message on the foundation’s contact page to “find out how we can together make a difference.”
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