J.M. Kaplan Fund

The J.M. Kaplan Fund champions transformative social, environmental, and cultural causes through inventive grant-making. Over its 75-year history, the Fund has devoted $280 million to propel fledgling efforts concerning civil liberties, human rights, the arts, and the conservation and enhancement of the built and natural worlds. Today, the Fund is active across the United States and beyond, operating grant programs focusing on the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice. To continue its legacy of catalytic giving, the Fund launched the J.M.K. Innovation Prize in 2015, reaching across America to provide early-stage support for entrepreneurs with twenty-first-century solutions to urgent social challenges.

The J.M. Kaplan Fund has remained a strong, effective philanthropic organization over three generations—by no means a common success story among family foundations. The Fund has profited from unwavering family support, talented and devoted staff, and creative leadership in each of the three generations. And now, as the hundredth anniversary rises on the horizon, a fourth generation stands ready!