Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation works across a broad range of thematic areas, prioritizing greater Atlanta and the state of Montana.
IP TAKE: On the occasion of his foundation’s total giving passing the $1 billion mark, Arthur M. Blank, a Giving Pledge signatory, told IP that “at least 95% of our family estate will end up in our family foundation in one form or another.” New developments at the foundation include an increasing emphasis on the interests of the six Blank children and new grantmaking programs for youth and democracy. This is not an easy funder to approach, however. While it gives across a wide swath of thematic areas, more than half of its giving stays in the Blank strongholds of Atlanta and Montana, and the foundation will not respond to letters of inquiry. A connection to the family, the foundation’s staff or a past grantee will likely be the only way in here.
PROFILE: The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation was established in 1995 by Arthur M. Blank, the co-founder of the Home Depot home improvement retail chain. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the foundation envisions “a world where sustainable and inclusive communities thrive.” Its giving and engagement seek to “leverage and connect all our assets to drive deep, meaningful impact that aligns with our enduring commitment to a values-based approach to philanthropy.”
The foundation runs grantmaking programs for five main giving areas: Atlanta’s West Side, Democracy, Environment, Mental Health and Well-being and Youth Development.
Several smaller giving programs are organized under the foundation’s Founder Initiatives. These include funding initiatives for the state of Montana, where the Blanks own several ranches; the Molly Blank Fund, which supports arts, culture and Jewish causes; and six Associate-Led Giving Programs that work across the Blank Family of Business to support causes including youth participation in sports, ocean conservation and veterans’ causes. Giving is national in scope, but Atlanta, Georgia and Montana are named as geographic areas of focus.
Grants for Education, Economic Development and Housing
A significant portion of the Blank Family Foundation’s work promotes economic equity and stability through quality education, career development, and fair and affordable housing. Several giving program make grants for these related causes.
The giving initiative for Atlanta’s West Side aims to support economic stability among the historic district’s “legacy residents.” This giving program was established in 2007 and has since made close to $90 million in grants for development in the area. Grants focus specifically on housing and financial inclusion.
Among the program’s housing grantees are the West Side Future Fund, which received $10 million to create more than 1,500 affordable housing units, and the Atlanta Land Trust, which received a grant for a project to build “permanently affordable single-family homes.”
Financial inclusion grants have gone to the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund, which received support for its In Her Hands guaranteed income program for women, and CareerRise, which runs neighborhood-based workforce development programs.
The Youth Development program focuses on “[s]caling alternative pathways to economic mobility for young people.” This is one of the foundation’s newer programs, and while “[s]trategies are under development,” the initiative will focus on organizations serving youth in Atlanta and Montana, as well as “[y]oung people living in high poverty communities” who “face high barriers to finding career pathways.”
Early grantmaking has gone to organizations including the Montana Technology Enterprise Center, the Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corporation and Atlanta’s Every Student Every Community.
While the Blank Family Foundation does not maintain a designated giving program for education, a significant portion of its grantmaking serves institutions of higher education across the U.S. Past grantees include Spelman College, the University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, Yale University and Babson College, which is Arthur Blank’s alma mater.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
Democracy is a newer area of giving for the Blank Foundation, which has recently established a major giving initiative to ensure “a free, fair, just and pluralistic democracy for all.” This program will focus on increasing “effective, constructive, and responsible leadership in Montana and Georgia.” While grantmaking from this program is still in its earliest stages, the foundation has named goals including:
Increasing public awareness “about reforms that strengthen democracy”;
Developing “future leaders who prioritize nation over party”; and
Support for projects and initiatives that “create the conditions for bipartisan connection and collaboration among our elected officials.”
An early grant from this new program provided funding to Future Caucus, which works with “leading young policymakers on both a federal and state level to bridge the partisan divide and lead a new era of collaborative governance.” Prior to establishing its giving program for democracy, the foundation made grants to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University and ProGeorgia, which “helps remove barriers to voting and enables everyday people to participate in our democracy.”
Grants for the Environment, Climate Change, Clean Energy Marine Conservation
The Blank Foundation supports initiatives for environmental conservation and clean energy via its Environment program and subprograms for the state of Montana. One of the foundation’s associate-led programs, the DreAMBoat Community Fund, focuses on ocean conservation.
Blank’s Environment initiative was launched in 2022 and focuses on “[r]educing climate-fueling emissions by supporting clean electricity and healthy soils.”
Grants for clean electricity aim to accelerate the adoption of renewable power sources throughout the Intermountain West and Southeast regions of the U.S.
Grants for “healthy soils” focus on the state of Montana, where the foundation supports efforts for “the protection of native grasslands and the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices.”
Grantees of the environment program include the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Clean Grid Initiative and the Capital Good Fund, which received a $1 million grant for a pilot program that provided “innovative financing to lease rooftop solar systems to low- and moderate-income families in Georgia.”
In Montana, the foundation has supported organizations including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Northern Plains Resource Council, the Gallatin Valley Land Trust and the Center for Large Landscape Conservation.
The DreAMBoat Community Fund is organized by the crew of the Blank-owned Yacht DreAMBoat to “to better the world’s oceans and communities for future generations.” This small program has supported the Blue Marine Foundation’s efforts to restore marine habitats around the world.
Grants for Mental Health
Blank’s Mental Health and Well-being giving area is the foundation’s “long-term commitment to addressing the growing mental health crisis in America.” Giving supports “the well-being of individuals, families and our collective society,” with a strong focus on children, adolescents and the greater Atlanta area.
Mental health grantees include Chris 180 Mental Health and Family Services, Katees Club, which supports bereaved children, and Resilient Georgia, a coalition working to develop a state-wide mental health system for young people from birth through age 26.
Grants for Public Health
Public health is not a stated area of giving for this funder, but the foundation provided $200 million in funding toward the establishment of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Arthur M. Blank Hospital. Set to open in 2024, the hospital is described as a “transformative $1.5 billion project, that will be a huge leap forward in how we care for Georgia’s kids.” Smaller health grants have also supported organizations including National Jewish Health, Massachusetts General Hospital and Community Health Partners of Livingston, Montana.
Grants for Arts and Culture, Jewish Causes
The Molly Blank Fund, named for Arthur Blank’s mother, supports the causes that were important to Molly Blank during her lifetime. Most grants support arts, culture and Jewish causes in the Atlanta area. Grantees include Temple Beth Tikvah, the Woodruff Arts Center and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta.
Grants of Military and Veterans
The Veterans Community Fund is one of the Blank Foundation’s Associate-Led Giving Programs. This fund supports organizations that help “veterans thrive in Georgia and Montana as they build their futures after military service.” The fund does not name specific strategies for its giving but has made as much as $1 million in grants annually.
Atlanta grantees of this fund include Atlanta Legal Aid’s Veterans Legal Project, the Atlanta History Center’s Veterans Day Project and the Warrior Alliance’s Operation Double Eagle, which helps veterans utilize “skills that were mastered during military service to achieve new careers in the golf, landscape and turf industries.”
In Montana, grants supported the Great Plains Veterans Service Center and Impact Montana, an organization that helps “service members, veterans, first responders and their families define their purpose, connect with health and community solutions, and strive for what they value.”
Other Grantmaking Opportunities:
Three of the Blank Foundation’s Associate-Led Giving Programs are affiliated with Blank-owned sports franchises and focus their giving on the involvement of children and youth in a variety of sports and recreational activities.
The Atlanta Falcons Youth Fund supports programs that aim to “increase the time kids spend in physical activity” and increase underserved children’s access to fresh produce. The fund has supported the Georgia High Schools Association and the Girls Empowering Movement, which aims to “improve the health and wellbeing of middle school girls by empowering them to take the lead in developing physical activity programs.”
The Atlanta United Community Fund is the associate giving program of Atlanta United FC, a major league soccer team. This fund aims “to make the game of soccer accessible and inclusive for individuals across Georgia and Montana” and supports programs that “stress the importance of physical fitness while building a supportive culture of play and sportsmanship.” This fund has partnered with the Latin American Association and Soccer in the Streets to run the Mentoring Through Soccer program in Atlanta.
The PGA TOUR Superstore Community Fund’s mission is “to increase inclusivity and access to golf and tennis across the country and enhance the quality of life in the communities that we serve.” Grantees include the Atlanta Korean Golfers Association and First Tee, a youth development organization that aims to teach character and empowerment through the game of golf.
Important Grant Details:
The Blank Family Foundation’s grants range from $100,000 to $750,000, although in past years grants have been as high as $6 million.
Greater Atlanta and the state of Montana are clear geographic priorities for this foundation, with well over half of its funding serving communities in these two areas.
Democracy and youth are the foundation’s newest initiatives and have so far focused on young leadership, bipartisan cooperation and economic opportunity.
This funder supports organizations of all sizes, with many smaller organizations receiving support from the foundation’s associate-led funding programs.
Information about past grantmaking is provided on program pages and in the foundation’s news and financial reports sections.
This foundation does not accept or respond to unsolicited proposals; grant applications are accepted by invitation only.
Contact the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation via email at info@ambff.org. The foundation’s phone number is 470-341-2109.
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