Bill Reeves and Debbie Berger
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: BlueCrest Capital Management
FUNDING AREAS: Immigrant Rights, Education in Hawaii
OVERVIEW: Bill Reeves and Debbie Berger conduct their philanthropy through Unbound Philanthropy, which focuses on immigrant rights in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as the Learning Coalition, which focuses on reform within Hawaii’s public school system. Reeves is also on the board of Third Way, a centrist think tank in Washington, D.C. According to available tax filings, Unbound Philanthropy awarded $3.25 million in grants in 2017.
BACKGROUND: Bill Reeves graduated with a B.A. in English from Yale University and an M.A. in philosophy from New York University. He served as a managing director and head of macro strategy and trading within the proprietary trading group of J.P. Morgan in New York and London. He eventually co-founded BlueCrest Capital Management.
UNBOUND PHILANTHROPY: Bill Reeves and Debbie Berger are directors of Unbound Philanthropy, which Reeves co-founded last decade. From 2005 to 2016, the foundation awarded $61.2 million in 523 grants. Unbound describes itself as a “private grantmaking foundation that works to ensure that migrants and refugees are treated with respect and engage with their new communities” and supports “pragmatic, innovative, and responsive approaches to immigration and immigrant integration in the United States and United Kingdom.”
In concert with the Ford Foundation and Nathan Cummings Foundation, Unbound is backing a “Pop Culture Collaborative” whose goal is to leverage philanthropic resources toward entertainment, advertising and media to “popularize authentic, just narratives about people of color, immigrants, refugees, and Muslims that together tell a powerful story of how we all belong in America.” Unbound is also a prominent donor to the Four Freedoms Fund (FFF), an immigrant funding collaborative that’s been around since 2003. It also prioritizes support for organizations working at the intersection of immigration and climate change.
Grantees include Asian Americans Advancing Justice, New York Immigration Coalition, and Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence in the United States. Grantees in the United Kingdom include the Public Law Project and The Aziz Foundation, “an independent grantmaking body dedicated to supporting the most disadvantaged communities in Britain.”
From 2005 to 2022, Unbound awarded 920 grants totaling over $108 million.
THE LEARNING COALITION: Hawaii natives Reeves and Berger are also strongly interested in public education in their home state. Earlier in the decade, Debbie was elected to the board of the Punahou School, her alma mater. The couple also established the Learning Coalition in 2000, which works to strengthen the Hawaiian public education system by establishing partnerships between the state’s Department of Education and local stakeholders.
LOOKING FORWARD: Unbound Philanthropy held some $222 million in assets in a recent year. Expect this wealthy couple to continue to dig into immigrant rights and Hawaii public education.
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