Excerpt from POWER OF A NAME IN FAMILY PHILANTHROPY: TWO PERSPECTIVES
by Elaine Gast Fawcett, Contributing Editor, NCFP | REPOST


Quiet Funder Keeps the Focus on Community
In 2014, after an influx of assets, Jessica (Jess) and Steve Sarowitz founded the Julian Grace Foundation, an entrepreneurial foundation that focuses on high-engagement grantmaking in order to create a just, unified, and hopeful world. The foundation supports 50 nonprofits internationally, often funding small and new organizations with general operating grants, giving them hard-to-find unrestricted funds. Jess and Steve are the only family members on a board of seven.

In order to keep the family’s anonymity, the couple chose a foundation name that others wouldn’t easily identify: Julian and Grace are the middle names of their children. “We’re generally very quiet, and we do private giving,” said Steve Sarowitz. “We have two young children, and we worried about protecting them and their privacy.”

Recently, Steve and Jessica pledged to give away one billion dollars in their lifetime, personally and through the Julian Grace Foundation, to causes that fight racism, sexism, nationalism, and religious prejudice. They decided to publish the pledge in a newspaper—the first time they had shared the family’s financial worth publicly. “We wanted our kids to grow up being well-grounded in the community, without wealth being a factor or lens onto who they are. That’s why we kept our giving under wraps for a long time,” said Jessica.

Grantees initially displayed the Sarowitz family name on this bus in Honduras, which is used to transport orphans and youth to school and events. For safety and other reasons, the Foundation asked grantees to immediately remove it.

There are other reasons why they chose to keep the family name quiet. For example, one time they donated funding to a bus service in Central America to transport orphans and youth to schools and program events. To their dismay, the grantees put the Sarowitz name on the side of the bus. “We asked them to remove it right away,” said Jessica. “We don’t want our name rolling around on a bus in Central America. We feel it could put us or others at risk when we go there.”

Recently, the foundation joined together with other family foundations to co-publish an opinion piece in response to hurtful statements that were made about the communities they serve. “All of the foundations put their name on the piece, and we grappled with whether to participate in that,” said Steve. “We stay out of politics, and we weren’t willing to tie our name to the original statement, which was quite political. We wrangled with the statement—removing all political references—until the board felt comfortable with it to attach our name to it. In the end, the communities we serve were happy that we did include our name.”
Even though the foundation leans toward staying low-key, they are doing bold work within the communities they care about. “We’re quiet, but we’re direct about our mission,” said Jessica. “Even though we prefer to be outwardly anonymous, we’re known within our own peer groups. We perfectly understand the power dynamics, and we don’t want the focus to shine on us as a foundation or a family. We want the focus to be on the community.”

To that end, the couple intends to give away most of their money in their lifetimes. “Our foundation is a sunsetting foundation,” said Steve. “We would love it if our kids want to help us, but neither one of them expects the foundation will go on in perpetuity. They will have the ability to set up their own foundation in the future, if they choose.”

Fawcett, E.G., National Center for Family Philanthropy. (2020, January 30). Power of a name in family philanthropy: Two perspectives. National Center for Family Philanthropy. https://www.ncfp.org/2020/01/30/power-of-a-name-in-family-philanthropy-two-perspectives/