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Fund President Stephen Heintz introduced and moderated a keynote discussion with Ben Rhodes, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting, about U.S.-Iran relations a year after the signing of the Iranian nuclear deal.

The Pluribus Project announced a portfolio of Political Game Changers to tackle some of the biggest problems facing our democracy. A nonpartisan special initiative with the Aspen Institute, it works to develop new ways to move political campaigns beyond big money and extreme ideologies to become more responsive to broad public interests.

Philanthropy must invest time and commit to constant innovation in order to tackle the root causes of the world’s most pressing problems, Stephen Heintz said, in remarks at the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre in April.

RBF President Stephen Heintz joined 350.org Executive Director May Boeve at a press conference on December 2, 2015 to announce that more than 500 institutions, managing a total of $3.4 trillion in assets, have made commitments to divest from fossil fuel holdings.

Ahead of the Paris conference on climate change, The New York Times created an interactive feature to explain how pledges by countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will affect global temperatures. “The Climate Change Pledges Are In. Will They Fix Anything?” used data and scenarios from a simulation model built by RBF grantee Climate Interactive.

One year after announcing the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s plan to divest from fossil fuels, President Stephen Heintz said its portfolio’s exposure to oil, coal, and tar sands has been reduced from about seven percent at the beginning of 2014 to just over four percent.

RBF President Stephen Heintz spoke about the Fund's experiences around its divestment and impact investment process during a panel discussion organized by the European Green Party and 350.org.

Dancewave, a Brooklyn-based organization that inspires young people to express themselves authentically through an innovative model of dance education, performed at The Pocantico Center this summer. The youngest and first pre-professional dancers to appear on Pocantico’s stage, Dancewave's Company I members performed works by renowned contemporary choreographers, Larry Keigwin, Andrea Miller, and Kyle Abraham.

The balance of political influence needs to be shifted from the few with money to the many, said Lucas Welch, executive director of the Pluribus Project, at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Introducing a panel discussion about money in politics, Welch pointed to public frustration with elected government and the influence of corporate spending. Panelists included leaders of The Pluribus Project, Take Back our Republic, Demos and change.org.

During a plenary session at the Center for Effective Philanthropy's National Conference in San Francisco in May 2015, Stephen Heintz, president of the Fund, participated in a panel discussion about different models of philanthropy and how each can maximize foundation impact. Heintz said foundations can demonstrate leadership by using intellectual, endowment, reputational, and relational capital, in addition to their grantmaking dollars.