News

We are pleased to share details about our efforts to better align the investment practices of the Fund with its mission in a new section of our website and announce that we have reached the milestone of $100 million in impact investments.

We marked the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s 75th anniversary last year and continue to reflect on common themes from our history through a series of essays. Since the beginning, the Fund has supported work around the globe, often focused on creating social change in diverse contexts.

A year-long investigation by RBF grantee the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network and its partner the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, has revealed the emergence of a €1.2 billion arms pipeline fueling conflict in the Middle East.

We marked the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s 75th anniversary last year and continue to reflect on past grantmaking by exploring common themes from our history through a series of essays. The first looks at our environmental grantmaking from early involvement in conservation to our current focus on mitigating the effects of climate change.

Many of the major climate commitments agreed on in Paris last December were made voluntarily, and now is the time to ramp up engagement to keep the international community on track, says Michael Northrop, in the latest issue of Alliance Magazine.

After five years of grantmaking in the Western Balkans, midway to the 10-year timeframe established for the program in 2010, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund commissioned an independent assessment to evaluate impact, such as progress made in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia, against the goals and indicators of the program framework.

According to a report from Center for An Urban Future, creative industries have been among the fastest growing segments of New York City’s economy over the last decade, and they outpace traditional economic engines like finance and insurance.

More than 100 corporations, states, regions, and cities around the world have committed to ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published by CDP and The Climate Group, an RBF grantee. At least 40 companies, 13 states and regions, and 74 cities have committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 100 percent, or acquiring 100 percent of their power from renewable sources.

China faces environmental challenges as its continuing growth meets the reality of finite water resources, according to a report published by China Water Risk. Water plays a key role in energy generation, in addition to providing for agriculture needs and municipal use. The report explores the risk exposure of different water usages as well as strategies to slow energy demand and achieve the right mix of power sources.

In considering the specific challenges and opportunities facing today’s democracy and democratic engagement in the United States, the Fund has revised the program guidelines for its Democratic Practice–United States portfolio. The revised guidelines recognize that the goal of advancing a vital and inclusive U.S. democracy is both to improve democratic systems and to enable U.S. citizens and residents to leverage these systems to advance social, racial, and economic justice.