Klarman Family Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Klarman Family Foundation’s medical research grantmaking generally supports work on cellular biology and eating disorders, with current priorities in anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders. It also supports efforts to promote healthy democratic institutions in Boston, the United States and Israel.

IP TAKE: While much of Klarman’s grantmaking centers around the greater Boston area and Israel, grantmaking for medical research may serve organizations in other areas. This foundation supports innovative treatments and trials for eating disorders, including but not limited to experimental therapeutics, repurposing approved pharmaceuticals and new non-psychotherapeutic interventions.

The Klarman Family Foundation, held more than $600 million in assets in a recent tax year, and gave away more than $40 million, with domestic and global Jewish-related causes receiving the largest portions of funding, including a special emphasis on Israel.

However, this funder is not accessible. It researches its own grantees to fund. Contact them to learn more about how it chooses what to fund and whether it has an evolving interest that may not yet be reflected on its site. This funder will require networking to get on its radar.

PROFILE: Established in 1990, the Klarman Family Foundation is the private foundation of financial investor Seth Klarman. He and his wife, Beth Klarman, have shared that they intend to give away most of their wealth during their lifetimes. The foundation aims to “identify areas of unmet need and to advance solutions to addressing them” and promote “the importance of creative thinking, strategic leadership and strong organizations to help bring about change.” The foundation’s current areas of focus are Medical & Scientific Research, Healthy Democracy, Greater Boston and Global Jewish Community & Israel

Grants for Diseases

Klarman’s Medical & Scientific Research grants support research to “advance understanding of the biological basis of health and illness. It seeks projects that have the potential to “generate resources and knowledge for the greater scientific community, leverage those resources through collaborations, and accelerate findings.” The foundation is currently prioritizing Eating Disorder Research, with one- to three-year grants to “understand the biology underlying the psychiatric disease anorexia nervosa, with the goal of accelerating progress toward prevention and treatment.” Past grantees include the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative, The Broad Institute, and the Children’s Hospital.

Grants for Mental Health

Klarman established the Anorexia Nervosa Genetics Initiative (ANGI) at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, with researchers from the United States, Sweden, Australia and Denmark participating in what the foundation calls the “largest genetic investigation of eating disorders ever conducted.” The initiative’s goal is to increase and transform knowledge regarding the causes of eating disorders and to build better understanding. The ultimate goal is to discover a cure for disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders. The foundation expects its ANGI research to expand the study of other psychiatric illnesses, as well.

The foundation also established the Klarman Cell Observatory at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The observatory “is a pilot effort to systematically define cellular circuits in mammalian cells.”

In addition to ANGI, Klarman runs an Eating Disorders Research Grants Program. The program awards two-year grants for a total of $400,000 ($200,000 per year) and one-year, $150,000 grants to support pilot studies by investigators working at nonprofit academic, medical, and research institutions located in the United States, Canada or Israel. The current long-term focus of the funding is to accelerate the development of treatments for anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorders. In the short term, the foundation supports research into the basic biology of those disorders.

Grants for Civic and Democracy

Klarman’s Healthy Democracy grantmaking is based on the belief that “the preservation of democratic norms lies at the core of all our work, and that a healthy democracy is crucial to everything we seek to achieve as a foundation.” It funds programs that work to:

  • strengthen equal protection under the rule of law

  • rebuild trust in news, science, and facts

  • rebuild confidence in democratic institutions, and the role and responsibilities for citizens to participate in democracy

  • strengthen accountability of government institutions

  • build social cohesion and address hate within and across communities 

Past grantees include the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Action for Boston Community Development.

Grants for Boston

With its Greater Boston focus area, the Klarman Family Foundation has emerged as a top arts and culture funder in Boston, thanks to a high-profile partnership with the Barr Foundation and other local funders. The Barr-Klarman Arts Capacity Building Initiative, for example, has made multi-year, nonrestrictive operating support grants to groups based on budget size and that focus on youth arts. The Klarmans also gave millions of dollars to the Broad Institute to establish the Klarman Cell Observatory. It funds local public health interests, especially concerning children’s well-being, as well as veterans and military families. It also promotes economic development and affordable housing initiatives.

Grants for Jewish Causes

The Klarman Family Foundation’s Jewish Community and Israel grantmaking centers around addressing anti-Semitism, connecting Jewish people around the globe to Israel, and supporting the lives of Arab Israelis in order to strengthen the country as a whole. A small sample of organizations supported in these veins include the Anti-Defamation League, International Association of Yahad-In Unum, Keshet, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Honeymoon Israel Foundation, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, Israel & Co., Israel-America Academic Exchange, the David Project, Kav Mashve, Matan, Jewish Funders Network, and Technion.

The foundation also gives to Jewish-related causes within a broader umbrella of supporting critical services and life enrichment. (Many additional, non-Jewish-related organizations are also funded in this manner.) Examples of Jewish-related support in this realm range from Beth Israel Medical Center, to Foundation for Jewish Camp, to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, among many others. Funding in this realm is particularly focused on the Boston area and Israel.

Important Grant Details:

Grants generally range from $25,000 to $500,000. The foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or requests for funding and reviews grant proposals on an invitation-only basis. Klarman Family Foundation trustees review grant recommendations throughout the year.

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