Glenn and Debbie Hutchins

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Cofounder of Silver Lake Partners

FUNDING AREAS: Education, Public Policy, Health

OVERVIEW: Glenn and Debbie Hutchins conduct their philanthropy through the Hutchins Family Foundation, which supports initiatives that have personal meaning to their family, and which does not evaluate unsolicited requests. The foundation was established in 2004 and focuses on public policy, education and healthcare. According to available tax filings, in 2017 the foundation awarded over $13.9 million in grants. Hutchins' alma mater, Harvard, is the site of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research. The Hutchins Family Foundation also funds the Chronic Fatigue Initiative. Overall, HFF seeks to have the "greatest impact in the shortest period of time with the most efficient resources."

BACKGROUND: Glenn Hutchins graduated from Lawrenceville School and earned his B.A., MBA and J.D. from Harvard. Hutchins is the cofounder of Silver Lake Partners, a leading private equity firm specializing in technology and technology-enabled companies such as Skype.

ISSUES:

EDUCATION: One of Hutchins Family Foundation's grantmaking categories is education. Hutchins has steadily supported his alma mater, Harvard, which received a $30 million gift in 2012 to support academic initiatives in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and also to launch the Hutchins Family Challenge Fund for House Renewal. This gift was expanded later, and helped establish the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, where prominent scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., serves as director. The couple has also strongly supported Lawrenceville School and has underwritten the Hutchins Scholars Program to support science and math students. Support has also gone to the Posse Veterans Program at Vassar College, which "seeks to increase the attendance and graduation rates of veterans at the most selective colleges and universities." Debbie is a Vassar graduate. Other recent grantees include outfits such as Port Chester Carver Center, which supports underprivileged youth, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, UNC Chapel Hill, and New Visions for Public Schools.

On the STEM front, the The Hutchins Family Foundation joined several other foundations and businesses to commit $20 million of private funding for Computer Science for All (CS4All), an "initiative to provide high-quality computer science learning opportunities to every student in the New York City public school system." 

PUBLIC POLICY: The Hutchins Family Foundation also makes grants within the realm of public policy. The foundation supports the Brookings Institution, where it helped establish the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy. Funding has also gone to Center for American Progress, which seeks to "build on the achievements of pioneering progressives by addressing 21st century challenges such as energy, national security, economic growth and opportunity, immigration, education and health care." Sums have also gone to the Committee for Economic Development and International Crisis Group, "an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict."

A component of this philanthropy also involves racial equity and one recent grantee is the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, whose goal is "to secure equal justice for all through the rule of law, targeting in particular the inequalities confronting African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities."  

HEALTHCARE: The foundation states that it supports "world-class basic research, translation of discovery into therapy and access to healthcare and services for patients in need." The couple has established the Chronic Fatigue Initiative (CFI), "the first scientifically rigorous and statistically significant, wide-scale research into the underlying infectious, immunological and toxicological causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which previously had attracted little to no resources for basic research." Some of this work has involved New York-Presbyterian. Other grantees in this area include the Gladney Center for Adoption and Hospital for Special Surgery.

OTHER: Support has recently gone to environmental outfits such as Atlantic Salmon Federation and Montana Land Reliance.

LOOKING FORWARD: Hutchins and Debbie have waded into some interesting issues with their philanthropy, so far. Their support of CFI is particularly intriguing, and some reports have suggested that the couple has an interest in "orphaned diseases." Perhaps support of other fringe health causes is down the line.

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