Overview

A foundation with flexible payout, depending on opportunities.

The HKH (Harold K. Hochschild) Foundation, a $30 million family foundation, usually gives between $1.5 million and $2 million in grants each year, in its core areas of disarmament, civil liberties, and the environment, a 6-7% grants-only payout. However, in 2004, it increased its giving to over $3 million, entering the areas of voter registration and civic engagement for the first time, to increase awareness for the upcoming election. Harriet Barlow, the Foundation's executive director, noted that a decline in civic participation was disadvantageous to the foundation's key areas, and that investment in voter awareness would help get the peace and environmental movements "out of their silos."

"Our trustees' view is that we should seize the moment if there is a political opportunity - a readiness in the electorate to be responsive, or a high level of citizen anxiety about the world," Barlow says. "At that time, concern about the war and corruption made it a good moment to mobilize people. We believe it is always healthier to have more people engaged." The Foundation has also found such opportunities in other years: "We had a full docket, but we added several hundred thousand to fund the Center for Constitutional Rights at the time of Guantanamo and the Patriot Act," Barlow says. "We saw the opportunity to make a difference. Over time, if not necessarily immediately, prudent investments in social change have an effect. There are still prisoners at Guantanamo, but it got to the Supreme Court, and there was some revision of the Patriot Act. One spends what one has to spend." The fluctuation has not resulted in additional excise taxes, she says.

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  Resources

• Executive Summary
• Full Report
• Order Print Copies

  Report Contents

• Introduction
• Focus: The Whitaker Foundation and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund
• The Learning Curve: The Beldon Fund
• Retooling for Spend Down: The Atlantic Philanthropies
• Giving While Living: The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Foundation
• Quick Spend Down: The Haigh-Scatena Foundation
• Raising the Payout: Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
• Giving 5.5%: The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
• More than Investment Returns: The Needmor Fund
• Ramping Up: The HKH Foundation
• Using All the Models: Endswell Foundation / Renewal Partners
• A Different Strategy: Omidyar Network
• Conclusion
• Selected Bibliography
• Resources
• List of Profiled Foundations
• Acknowledgements

  Upcoming Events

• November 29
  10am - Noon
  NCG Family Philanthropy Exchange and the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society are hosting a discussion of Beyond Five Percent: The New Foundation Pay out Menu. This funders only event is free for members.
  learn more >>

  Supporters of
  “Beyond 5%”

• Beldon Fund
• French American Charitable Trust (FACT)
• Quixote Foundation

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