Rockefeller Brothers Fund Totally Explained

Everything about The Rockefeller Brothers Fund totally explained

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), (Philanthropy for an Interdependent World), is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Nelson, Laurance, Winthrop and David, and is distinct from the Rockefeller Foundation, which is more independent from family control. Its headquarters are located on the 37th Floor, at 437 Madison Ave, New York, which is also the location of the family's major non-profit philanthropic organization, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, as well as the family's fourth-generation philanthropic institution, the Rockefeller Family Fund.
The current president of the Fund is Stephen B. Heintz and its chairman is Richard Rockefeller, the fifth child of David Rockefeller.

Founding

The Fund was initially set up by a gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1951; upon his death in 1960 it received a major bequest from his estate. Initially, the five brothers contributed funds via their income from the various family trusts. Beginning in 1952, the brothers began to include on the board of the Fund trustees who were not members of the Rockefeller family. In 1954 they included their sister Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, who hadn't been involved in its founding. In 1958, the first of a number of daughters and sons of the founders joined, and the first of their children became trustees in 1992. Since the establishment of the Fund, three generations of family members have served as trustees.

Mission and programs

The Fund manages four major programs: Democratic Practice, Sustainable Development, Peace and Security, and Human Advancement. Its four principal operational locations, or pivotal places, are New York City, Serbia and Montenegro, South Africa, and Southern China. It also acts as an incubator for in-house projects that later evolve into free-standing institutions - a case in point being The Climate Group, launched in London in 2004.
   Its central mission is to promote social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world; through its grantmaking, the Fund supports efforts to expand knowledge and shape public policy; and its programs are intended to develop leaders, engage citizens and strengthen institutions through durable social partnerships. A major affiliate foundation is the Asian Cultural Council (an offshoot of the JDR 3rd Fund), formed by John D. 3rd in 1963, which supports cultural exchange in the arts between America and Asia; as well as providing fellowship grants to primarily Asians artists, scholars and students.
   The Fund also awards the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color to about 25 students annually from a nationwide pool of 27 participating colleges and universities. These fellowships are awarded annually to outstanding minority undergraduate students in the arts and sciences wishing to pursue graduate degrees in education and to teach in American public elementary or secondary schools.
   In April 1957, the trustees of the Fund established the Ramon Magsaysay Award - named after the former Philippines President - with the concurrence of the then Philippine government. A nonprofit Foundation was set up to administer the awards, the RMAF, and seven prominent Filipinos were elected to the inaugural board of trustees (it now has nine). Awards are issued in six categories to all Asians for achieving distinction in their policy area and for selfless public service. The Ford Foundation supported this Award programme with a grant to establish the most recent award, Emergent Leadership, in 2000.
   On July 1, 1999, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation of Stamford, Connecticut, merged with the RBF, substantially increasing its assets, which amount to $821.8 million, as of August, 2006.
   The assets were further bolstered in November, 2006 by a bequest of $225 million from David Rockefeller, upon his death, to create the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund, which will complement the foundation’s work in the areas of sustainable development, poverty eradication and international trade and finance, and to a program that fosters dialogue between Muslim and Western nations. Additional money will also be given for the fund's upcoming projects, one of which is a global-warming summit in New York in the spring of 2007 that will bring together the mayors of cities around the world to discuss ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Special Studies Project

From 1956 to 1960 the Fund financed an ambitious study conceived by its then president, Nelson Rockefeller, to 'define the major problems and opportunities facing the U.S. and clarify national purposes and objectives, and to develop principles which could serve as the basis of future national policy'.
Nelson recruited Henry Kissinger, who was then on the faculty of Harvard University, as director of the project; he'd first met Kissinger in 1955. He also brought on board such luminaries as Edward Teller, Charles Percy, Dean Rusk, John Gardner (president of the Carnegie Corporation) and Henry Luce, along with his brothers Laurance and John D. 3rd. Seven panels were constituted that looked at sweeping issues ranging from military/security strategy to foreign policy, to international economic strategy and defense department and governmental reorganization.
The military subpanel's report was rush-released much earlier than the others, about two months after the USSR launched Sputnik, in October 1957. It was given prominent treatment on the front page of The New York Times, selling thousands of copies and garnering unprecedented influence. Many of its major recommendations - principal among them a massive arms buildup to counter perceived Soviet military superiority - were adopted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his State of the Union address in January, 1958. The project was finally published in its entirety in 1961 as Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports. The archival study papers are stored in the Rockefeller Archive Center at the family estate; portions of the papers are still restricted, over four decades after the report was published.

The Pocantico Conference Center

The Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund is located at the "Coach Barn" in the heart of the Rockefeller estate in Westchester County, north of New York City (see Kykuit). The Center was created when the Fund leased the area from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1991.
Since its opening in 1994, the Center has hosted 482 meetings with 13,223 attendees, on subjects directly related to the RBF's program objectives, including dialogues held by outside organizations.
Some recent (2005) Conference subjects have included:

Ethical Globalization - Chaired by Mary Robinson.
The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa - Established in 2000 by the presidents of Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, to assist higher education institutions in six African countries —Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Climate Dialogue III - Sponsored by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and co-chaired by Pew Center President Eileen Claussen and Ged Davis, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum - supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the United Nations Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, and the RBF.
Independent Media and the Future of Democracy - In the wake of the November 2004 election, three leading independent magazines - Mother Jones, The Nation, and The American Prospect - convened the leadership of independent media organizations from the worlds of print, radio, television and the internet to assess the political, technological, and demographic changes to come in the next decade. Sponsored by the RBF.
Foundation Executives Group Meeting - Sponsored by the RBF; The Ford Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Commonwealth Fund; The MacArthur Foundation; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of NY; The Atlantic Philanthropies; W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Pew Charitable Trusts; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; David and Lucille Packard Foundation; and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
- Sixteen foundation presidents gathered for their annual meeting to discuss issues of mutual concern. It was chaired by Paul Brest, president of the Hewlett Foundation. This year’s topics included international and foreign policy issues with remarks by Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations; a panel on climate change led by RBF president Stephen Heintz; and a session on policy advocacy led by Rebecca Rimel, president of the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Patty Stonesfier, president of the Gates Foundation.
United Nations Security Council Retreat - Sponsored by the RBF and the United Nations.
- The Secretary-General of the United Nations and fifteen representatives of the States members of the Security Council met at the Pocantico Conference Center for the seventh annual “Security Council retreat” convened by the Secretary-General. (See External Links for a full list of the 2005 Conferences.)

Notable historical grantees

The list is from the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC) which is restricted to past grantees from over twenty years ago and not extending beyond 1986, with most information on grants only up to the early 1980s. It should be noted that some of the grantees below may also be current recipients - see the RBF website for the latest list, in 2005.

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research - 1969-1976, 1979-1984.

Asia Society - 1956-1983.

Brookings Institution - Various programs, 1953-1982.

Carnegie Corporation of New York, including Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - Various programs, 1953-1979.

Columbia University - 1951-1982.

Council on Foreign Relations Inc. - 1953-1980.

Foreign Policy Association - 1947-1982.

The Foundation Center - 1956-1982.

Harvard University - Various programs, 1953-1982.

The Legal Aid Society - 1941-1982.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. - 1968-1973, 1977-1979.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Various programs, 1949-1982.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - 1946-1982.

Museum of Modern Art - Various programs, 1947-1983.

New York University - Various programs, 1951-1982.

Rockefeller Family Fund, Inc. - 1970-1976.

Rockefeller Foundation, including Rockefeller Archive Center - 1952-1984.

Rockefeller University - 1970-1980.

Social Science Research Council - Various programs, 1951-1976.

Trilateral Commission - 1972-1983.

United Nations - Various programs, 1963-1976.

Presidents

Nelson Rockefeller 1956 - 1958.

Laurance Rockefeller 1958 - 1968.

Dana S. Creel 1968 - 1975.

William M. Deitel 1975 - 1987.

Colin G. Campbell 1987 - 2000.

Stephen B. Heintz 2001 -

Trustees

Richard Chasin

Former president, Rockefeller Family Fund (1981–1992).

Jessica P. Einhorn

Dean, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; former Managing Director for Finance & Resource Mobilization, World Bank; Director, Peterson Institute (formerly the Institute for International Economics); Executive Committee member, Trilateral Commission.

Neva R. Goodwin (Vice Chair) (*)

Stephen B. Heintz (President)

Former Chief of Staff, Senator Joseph Lieberman.

Miranda M. Kaiser (*)

James Moltz

Vice Chairman, International Strategy and Investment, Inc.; Former Director, New York Stock Exchange.

John Morning

Timothy O'Neill (*)

Managing Director, Goldman Sachs & Co.

Robert B. Oxnam

President Emeritus, the Asia Society; Member, Council on Foreign Relations.

Joseph A. Pierson (*)

David Rockefeller, Jr.

Richard Rockefeller (Chair)

Valerie R. Wayne (*)

Frank Wisner

Vice Chairman, American International Group Inc.; Former U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, Egypt, India, and the Philippines; Former Undersecretary, U.S. Departments of Defense and State.

Wendy O'Neill Wang (*) Prominent past trustees:

William McChesney Martin (former chairman of the Federal Reserve),

Henry Kissinger Advisory Trustees

Jonathan F. Fanton

President, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Chicago)

William H. Luers

President, United Nations Association of the United States of America

Abby M. O'Neill (*)

Richard D. Parsons

Chairman and CEO of Time Warner.

David Rockefeller

Steven C. Rockefeller (former Chair). (*) Denotes Rockefeller family member.Further Information

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