 | |
| Nickname | Schusterman Family Philanthropies |
|---|---|
| Established | 1987 |
| Founders | Charles Schusterman and Lynn Schusterman |
| Headquarters | Tulsa, Oklahoma |
Key people |
|
| Website | schusterman |
Formerly called | Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation |
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies is a philanthropic organization founded in 1987 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In 1987, Charles Schusterman and Lynn Schusterman, whose family business, Samson Investment, had grown to become one of the nation's largest independent oil and gas companies, created the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. [1]
Giving historically focused largely on the global Jewish community, Israel, and the family's hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, but later expanded to support equity and inclusion efforts in the U.S. [2] [3]
After Charles' death in 2000, Lynn Schusterman continued to lead the organization, joined by her daughter, Stacy H. Schusterman. Lynn became chair emerita of the organization in 2018, and Stacy Schusterman assumed the role of chair. [2] In 2021, the family began to use the name Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies for their philanthropic work. [4]
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies distributes over $400 million annually to a variety of causes in the United States and Israel. [5] During 2020, the organization gave $150 million in COVID-19 relief. [6]
In 2021, Schusterman Family Philanthropies partnered to establish the $250 million Justice and Mobility Fund with Ford Foundation and Blue Meridian Partners. The fund supports previously incarcerated people and organizations that advocate for them. [7] They also fund grants through the Coalition to Advance Public Safety to support programs reducing gun violence. [8] As part of its criminal justice work, the foundation supported Oklahoma State Question 820, a failed ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in the state. [9]
Funding for education grants increased from $42 million to $105 million in 2020 in response to COVID-19. [10] The Schustermans launched the Black Principals Network in 2021, which later folded into the Surge Institute to support leadership opportunities for people of color in education. [11]
The philanthropies contribute to the Care for all with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors that supports advocacy for universal basic income, child care, and care work for people with disabilities and elderly. [12] They also contributed to the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge. Since 2019, they have been part of the Collaborative for Gender + Reproductive Equity to support gender equity and reproductive freedom. [13] [14] [15]
The Schusterman family are major donors for social service initiatives in Israel, with specific focus in supporting at-risk women and victims of child abuse. In 2022, they supported the construction of a field hospital following the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry. [16]
The Schustermans were among the founders of Birthright Israel. [16] In 2019, they donated $1.5 million to the American Israel Education Foundation, a non-profit run by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to fund Israel delegation trips for members of United States Congress. [17]
Schusterman Family Philanthropies has funded programs and faculty at colleges and universities, such as the Israel on Campus Coalition and Israel Institute, and has directly funded centers for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Oklahoma. [18] The Israel Institute was established in 2012 with funding from the Schusterman Family Philanthropies, with former Israeli ambassador Itamar Rabinovich as president, to facilitate post-docs and visiting professorships for Israeli academics at American universities and colleges. [19] According to Jewish Currents Israel Institute fellows are not required to represent a Zionist perspective, but the program and Shusterman Family Philanthropies have been criticized by the University of Chicago chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine for allegedly influencing host institutions and the field of Israel Studies to discourage criticism of the state of Israel. [18]
The Schusterman Family Philanthropies efforts toward building Jewish community and advocacy include off-shoot organizations: the Schusterman-Israel Foundation, the ROI Community, and the Jerusalem Season of Culture. These emphasize entrepreneur networks, education, and connections with Israel. [20] They are contributors to Repair the World, a Jewish service organization, [21] BBYO, Hillel International, [22] Moishe House. [23] the Jews of Color Initiative, [24] and Keshet, a network supporting LGBT inclusion in the Jewish community. [25]
The Schusterman family contributes significantly to Tulsa based organizations and causes, and has been recognized for impact in K12 through collegiate education by Tulsa Community College. [26] They are responsible for bringing Teach For America to Tulsa schools, [27] and have supported the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, [28] Green County Habitat for Humanity, [29] and Hunger Free Oklahoma. [30]
The Philanthropies have funded initiatives such as Fair Fight Action, All Voting is Local, and Protect Democracy to protect voting rights, election and ballot integrity, and increase participation in elections. [31] [32]
Charles Bronfman, is a Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist and is a member of the Canadian Jewish Bronfman family. With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023, Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 1,217th wealthiest person in the world.
George Bruce Kaiser is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman of BOK Financial Corporation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. As of September 2021, he is the 476th richest person in the world and was, in 2012, one of the top 50 American philanthropists.
Taglit-Birthright Israel, also known as Birthright Israel or simply Birthright, is a free ten-day heritage trip to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights for young adults of Jewish heritage between the ages of 18 and 26. The program is sponsored by the Birthright Israel Foundation, whose donors subsidize participation.
The Charles H. Revson Foundation was founded in 1956 by Charles H. Revson, the founding President of Revlon Cosmetics as a vehicle for his charitable giving. He willed half of his estate to the Foundation upon his death. Julie Sandorf has been the President of the Foundation since January 2008.
The Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF) is one of the largest community foundations in the United States. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as of January 2011 it was reported to have approximately four billion dollars in assets, and to have donated more than $580 million to local charities and government projects.
The Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) is a United States pro-Israel umbrella organization founded in 2002 with funding from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. ICC's chief executive officer since 2013, Jacob Baime, is a former national field director for AIPAC.
Moishe House is an international non-profit organization and Jewish outreach initiative. It is made up of a collection of homes throughout the world that serve as hubs for young adult Jewish community founded by David Cygielman. It provides a rent subsidy and program budget to residents who then use their home to create Jewish communal space. It is pluralistic and open to Jews of all backgrounds and affiliations.
The Koret Foundation is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. Its mission is to strengthen the Bay Area and support the Jewish community in the U.S. and Israel through grantmaking to organizations involved with education, arts and culture, the Jewish community, and the Bay Area community. The foundation takes an approach of testing new ideas and bringing people and organizations together to help solve societal and systemic problems of common concern.
Lynn Schusterman is an American billionaire philanthropist. She is the co-founder and chair emerita of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and founder of several other philanthropic initiatives.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is a philanthropic organization that encompasses all of the charitable giving of founder Michael R. Bloomberg. Headquartered in New York City, Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses its resources on five areas: the environment, public health, the arts, government innovation and education. According to the Foundation Center, Bloomberg Philanthropies was the 10th largest foundation in the United States in 2015, the last year for which data was available. Bloomberg has pledged to donate the majority of his wealth, currently estimated at more than $54 billion. Patti Harris is the CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
The Bronfman Fellowship is a non-profit educational program for young Jews in Israel and North America.
The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation (MFF) is a Los Angeles, California-based nonprofit foundation which aims to strengthen the State of Israel and its ties to the United States, as well as to strengthen the Jewish identity of American Jews and their connection to Israel.
Charles Schusterman was a Tulsa American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Samson Investment Company, a privately owned oil and gas company with oil field investments in the United States, Canada, Venezuela and Russia. He was a large donor to Jewish causes in the United States and Israel. He and his wife, Lynn Schusterman, founded the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.
Stacy Helen Schusterman is an American heiress and billionaire businesswoman. The daughter of oil executive Charles Schusterman and his wife, Lynn Schusterman, Schusterman is the founder of deepwater drilling company Samson Energy.
Douglas E. Goldman is an American businessman, philanthropist, and member of the Haas family.
The Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) is a global family of foundations, co-founded by Mikhail Fridman, an international businessman and philanthropist, and his business partners. In 2022 after Russian invasion in Ukraine the EU imposed sanctions on Fridman, who said the EU's allegations were false and defamatory. After that the Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into and frozen the bank account. An interim manager was subsequently appointed.
Olam is a network of Jewish and Israeli organizations that work in the fields of global service, international development and humanitarian aid. It was launched in 2015 by the Alliance for Global Good, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies and the Pears Foundation.
The Mega Group was an informal group of influential Jewish entrepreneurs involved in Jewish affairs. It was founded in 1991 by Les Wexner and Charles Bronfman as the Study Group. The group met twice yearly for philanthropy and Judaism seminars. It is said to have had up to 50 members, including Hollywood director Steven Spielberg. Wexner led the group with Bronfman, and it inspired several philanthropic initiatives such as the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, Birthright Israel, and support for the renewal of Hillel International. The group became known to a wider public through a Wall Street Journal report in May 1998.
