Stanley Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Stanley Family Foundation provides ongoing support to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. Smaller sums support mental health, community development and education in Connecticut.
IP TAKE: Having come close to losing their son to a mental health crisis, the Stanley Family’s mental health giving is personal. It is also impactful. This family foundation and its philanthropic sister, the Stanley Medical Research Institute, have funded a significant portion of psychiatric research on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder over the past two decades. The Family Foundation maintains a low profile and provides ongoing support to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. Unless you are working in mental health, community development or education in the family’s home state of Connecticut, this will be a difficult funder to approach. A direct connection to the family or foundation staff may be indispensable here.
PROFILE: The Stanley Family Foundation, based in Briarcliff Manor, New York, was established in 1986 by Ted Stanley and his wife, Vada Stanley. Ted Stanley, who died in 2016, was the founder of the Danbury Mint, a mail order company that sells collectibles and jewelry. In 1988, the Stanleys’ son Jonathan, then a college student, suffered a life-endangering episode of mania. Fortunately, and with his parents’ intervention, he received treatment, recovered and went on to graduate from college and law school. Jonathan Stanley is a founder and board member of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a national mental health organization.
After Jonathan’s recovery from mental illness, the family, whose estimated wealth was about $1 billion, began investing heavily in psychiatric research. In addition to the Stanley Family Foundation, they established the Stanley Medical Research Institute, which supports “research on the causes of, and treatments for, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” The Stanley Family Foundation, which does not maintain a website, provides ongoing support to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. It also supports mental health, community development and education in the state of Connecticut. This funder maintains an exceptionally low profile, and does not articulate a mission statement or grantmaking priorities.
Grants for Mental Health
The main recipient of the Stanley Family Foundation’s mental health giving is the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute. According to Ted Stanley’s New York Times obituary, the Stanleys were persuaded by Dr. Edward M. Scolnick, a preeminent neuroscientist, to commit $100 million to the establishment of the Center, which aims “to better understand the roots of disease and narrow the gap between new biological insights and impact for patients.” The Stanleys granted $650 million to Broad in 2014, and have given millions annually since then, bringing the foundation’s total gift to Broad to about $860 million.
Other mental health grantees include Laurel House, a mental health provider in Stamford, Connecticut; the Treatment Advocacy Center, where Jonathan Stanley serves on the board of trustees; and Bridges Healthcare, a behavioral health provider in New Haven, Connecticut.
Other Grantmaking
According to its tax filings, the Stanley Family Foundation also provides support to organizations working in the areas of community development and education in Connecticut.
Grantees include Stamford’s Building One Community, St. Martin de Porres Academy in New Haven, Hartford’s Community Partners in Action and Norwalk Community College.
Important Grant Details
The Stanley Foundation generally grants millions to the Broad Foundation each year. Other grants range from $2,500 to about $30,000.
The bulk of this funder’s grantmaking is reserved for annual gifts to the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute.
Smaller grants have gone to community development and education in the state of Connecticut.
This funder does not maintain a website or provide a direct avenue for getting in touch.
Grantmaking for research on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are conducted through the Stanley Medical Research Institute, a separate entity founded by the Stanley Family.
For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s tax filings.
The Stanley Family Foundation can be reached by telephone at (914) 260-6358.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
CONTACT:
Stanley Family Foundation
430 Central Dr.
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510-1102
(914) 260-6358
