Our Mission
We invest in catalytic ideas, people, efforts, and institutions working strategically toward ecological regeneration, justice system transformation, and art for social impact.
Photo credit: Lukas Haynes
Expanding a Legacy
Inspired by the vision and generosity of founders David and Peggy Rockefeller, the David Rockefeller Fund is a family foundation that not only continues – but expands and reimagines – the family’s legacy of philanthropy.
This requires experimentation, adaptation, and collaboration with funders to better understand what philanthropy is here for and how we can live up to its name: ‘for the love of humanity.’
The Fund supports nonprofits, located in the U.S. across three program areas: Arts, Climate, and Justice.
- Arts focuses on cultivating, showcasing and disseminating the stories of innovative art for social change
- Climate supports and sustains bold, science-based leadership on climate solutions
- Justice supports bold new ideas and initiatives for transforming detention and incarceration policy
Our History
Photo credit: Chase Manhattan Bank Photo Studio (provided by Rockefeller Archive Center)
The David Rockefeller Fund was established in 1989 by David Rockefeller and his wife Peggy to carry out their annual charitable giving in communities where they had homes outside New York City. In 2001, David and Peggy expanded the Fund and invited their children and grandchildren and their spouses to take a more active role in the Fund with the idea of transferring to them the family’s philanthropic tradition. The Fund’s work provides a learning environment where family members are able to engage in dialogue and grant-making around shared topics of interest.
Philanthropy is involved with basic innovations that transform society, not simply maintaining the status quo or filling basic social needs.
David Rockefeller