News

Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) has announced it will award Ada del Pilar Ortiz the 2025 Pocantico Prize for Visual Artists.

Anne Bartley, former trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), passed away on August 30, 2025, following a courageous battle with cancer.

On September 15, 2025, the Concordia Leadership Council announced the recipients of its 2025 Leadership Award, including RBF President and CEO Stephen Heintz for the civil society sector. 

In 1928, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller addressed a letter to her sons, who would go on to establish the RBF in 1940. “It is not enough to rid ourselves of prejudice,” she wrote. “We must undo it.” Her charge remains our own, inspiring workplace policies that project empathy, uphold dignity, and help sustain performance through challenging times.

Pocantico and the Katonah Museum of Art present Shen Wei: Still/Moving, a dual-venue exhibition celebrating trailblazing artist Shen Wei. 

The Investment Integration Project released a review of the RBF’s investment strategy a decade after it divested from fossil fuels.

U.S. democracy faces myriad new challenges in 2025. The DPUS program revised its guidelines to respond to this evolving context. 

After a comprehensive review of grantmaking from 2017 through 2024, program staff determined that the current Sustainable Development goal and strategies should remain unchanged.

For the RBF’s Central America program, accountability sits at the very heart of its grantmaking. During a recent visit to Guatemala and El Salvador, a delegation of RBF staff and trustees had the chance to meet with some of its grantees, whose work requires commitment, sacrifice, adaptability, and, all too often, courage.

Research indicates that museums boost visitors’ mental and physical health and combat feelings of social isolation. Communities with access to cultural institutions like museums rank better on health, happiness, and social cohesion indicators. In a time when polarization is on the rise and membership in traditional connectors like churches and social clubs is on the decline, the role of museums has never been more critical.