SOURCE OF WEALTH: AWM Investment Company
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Health & Human Services, Environment & Animals
OVERVIEW: Austin and Dianne Marxe and family move their philanthropy through the Marxe Family Foundation, which available tax filings show, gave away around $700,000 in 2018. Annual grantmaking has been modest lately, but the family has given millions to Baruch College.
BACKGROUND: Austin W. Marxe was born in the Bronx and raised in Queens in a family of modest means. He received an accounting degree from Baruch College in 1965. He worked at Prudential Bache and went on to found AWM Investment Company, an employee-owned investment firm, in 1988.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Marxe is a major patron of his alma mater Baruch College. He gave a $30 million gift to Baruch’s School of Public and International Affairs, renaming it the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. The couple continue to support the institution via their foundation.
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Grantees have included Doctors Without Borders, Planned Parenthood, Michael J. Fox Foundation, and Team Rubicon, “a veteran service organization that uses disaster response to help reintegrate veterans back into civilian life.”
ENVIRONMENT & ANIMALS: Marxe is an avid traveler and fisherman. Support has gone to Environmental Defense Fund, Waterkeeper Alliance, African Wildlife Foundation, Morris Animal Foundation, and Sierra Club Foundation.
OTHER: The Marxes have supported the ACLU.
LOOKING FORWARD: Annual grantmaking out of the foundation has been modest lately but perhaps giving will ramp up.
CONTACT:
The Marxe Family Foundation does not provide a clear avenue of contact but below is an address:
Marxe Family Foundation
c/o Anchin 1375 Broadway
New York, NY 10018
