Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Founded in 1940, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund advances social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world. Six programs comprise the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s current grantmaking focus. These programs reflect board and staff assessment of the challenges facing today’s increasingly interdependent world on which strategic philanthropy and the Fund’s accumulated grantmaking experience can have a meaningful impact. Three programs (Democratic Practice, Peacebuilding, and Sustainable Development) are global fields of work within which the Fund has identified issues of enduring global concern where breakthroughs are needed. These thematic programs typically maintain a focus on the United States along with work internationally, as appropriate, to strengthen the vitality of democracy, advance just and durable peace, and advance solutions to climate change. Three pivotal place programs (New York City, Southern China, and Western Balkans) pursue program goals in the Fund’s three fields of interest as appropriate in these specific contexts, generating lessons and innovations of significance to their immediate regions and beyond. We believe that a combination of thematic- and place-based approaches is needed to achieve enduring change in larger systems.