Charles and Deborah Royce
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: Royce & Associates
FUNDING AREAS: Arts & Culture, Conservation & Preservation, Religious, Human Services & Health, Education, Connecticut community
OVERVIEW: Chuck Royce and family conduct their philanthropy through the Royce Family Fund. According to available tax filings, the foundation awarded $5.7 million in grants in 2017. The family's giving centers around the Northeast, particularly Connecticut and New York (both Upstate New York and New York City). Arts and culture are their top interests. Other interests include historic preservation and environmental conservation. The family has also given quite a bit of money to local churches.
BACKGROUND: Charles M. Royce graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and got his MBA degree from Columbia University. He was director of research at brokerage firm Scheinman, Hochstin & Trotta, and also worked at Blair & Co. as a security analyst. He has been the CEO of Royce & Associates LLC since 1972 and also serves as the company’s director and portfolio manager.
ISSUES:
ARTS & CULTURE: Arts and culture organizations make up a significant portion of the Royce Family Fund's annual grantees. Royce's wife, Deborah Goodrich Royce, is a longtime actress and filmmaker on both coasts who once worked as a story editor for Miramax. These days, she is heavily involved with the Avon Theatre Film Center in Stamford, Conn., where she served as vice president for more than a decade, and recently assumed the role of president. The Royces support Avon Theatre Film Center, as well as groups like Friends Of The Orpheum, Lincoln Center For Performing Arts, Film Society Of Lincoln Center, New York Philharmonic, Park Avenue Armory, The Met, The Museum Of Modern Art, and the Frick Collection, where Royce is a trustee. The family has also supported Haines Falls Free Library.
CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION: The family has a long track-record of historic preservation. In 2003, the Royces purchased the historic Ocean House, a Victorian hotel in Rhode Island slated for demolition, and rebuilt it. The Royces also helped restore Avon Theater. Via their foundation, the family has supported Connecticut Trust For Historic Preservation, Earthwatch Institute, Everglades Foundation, Greenwich Point Conservancy, and Scenic Hudson. The family has recently given especially strong support to National Trust For Historic Preservation, Wallingford Historic Preservation Trust, and Hunter Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to "restoring the historical buildings, cultural offerings and economic health" in the Catskill region.
RELIGIOUS: The family recently gifted over $1 million to Christ Church Greenwich. Other grantees have included Episcopal Church Foundation, First Presbyterian Church, St. Paul's Theological Centre, and Forward Movement, "an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living."
HUMAN SERVICES & HEALTH: Grantees have included Episcopal Charities, East Side House Settlement, Greenwich Hospital, Winthrop University Hospital, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
EDUCATION: The Royces have supported Royce's alma mater Brown University, home to a fellowship program and a professorship that bear Charles’s name. They have also supported Deborah's school, Lake Erie College. Other grantees have included Georgetown University Law Center, Grace Christian School, Greenwich Country Day School, Pine Point School, Trinity College, and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, where Royce sits on the board.
OTHER: The family has supported outfits that work within the Connecticut community, including Fairfield County Community Foundation and CT Against Gun Violence. They have also supported organizations like Send A Cow, which gives "direct, practical help to poor farmers in East Africa." It is worth noting that Royce's former wife, Joyce, is a director of the Endupoto Primary School for Maasai children in Tanzania.
LOOKING FORWARD: The Royce family is operating a robust philanthropic operation. Expect this to continue in the coming years.
CONTACT:
The Royce Family Fund does not provide a clear avenue of contact but below is an address:
Royce Family Fund, Inc.
8 Sound Shore Dr., Ste. 140
Greenwich, CT 06830
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