News

“Repairing the fabric of our democracy will require extraordinary stewardship by leaders across society.”

The journey we have taken to deploy our endowment investments for greater sustainability has led us to a broader realization that the impact of our institutional decisions and practices can bolster and extend the social change efforts of our grantees.

As a result of a generous bequest from the estate of David Rockefeller, the Fund’s 2019 grantmaking budget increased by more than 10 percent over the previous year.

After years of research and planning, in late 2019 the RBF selected the region encompassing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as the focus for a new “pivotal place” program. Aguilar will work with civil society organizations and other stakeholders to shape the program to address the most pressing issues facing the region. The program is expected to begin grantmaking in earnest in mid-2021.

The letter reflects an unprecedented consensus among national, state, and local grantmakers and philanthropic institutions.

The Peacebuilding program team took inspiration from a wide range of peacebuilders. Some are internationally acclaimed figures, others are the less well-known but equally inspiring partners whom the Peacebuilding staff is privileged to work with and learn from.

Less than two percent of philanthropic dollars spent in the past decade have been dedicated to efforts to advance voting, promote civic participation, strengthen government, support the news media, and pursue other work that ensures our democracy is functioning well.

The RBF will allocate additional $48 million over five years to advance racial justice, democracy, and equitable low-carbon capitalism.

We should all use this time to pause and reflect on the ongoing struggle for racial justice and to raise our consciousness about how we interact with each other in the various spaces we exist.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, co-chaired by Rockefeller Brothers Fund President Stephen Heintz, launched its final report with recommendations to reinvent U.S. democracy to be more representative, responsive, and effective.