Eugene M. Lang Foundation
OVERVIEW: The Eugene M. Lang Foundation names arts and culture, education, health and human services, and justice as areas of interest. Its grantmaking is concentrated in New York City and Washington D.C. and their surrounding areas.
IP TAKE: Education is this funder’s largest area of giving. In higher education, Swarthmore College and a cadre of New York City schools receive ongoing support. K-12 funding prioritizes STEM, civics and arts education programs for underserved students. Arts and culture appear to be the foundation’s second largest area of giving, with most grantees concentrated in New York and Washington D.C. In Lang’s other areas of interest, specific areas of focus change every few years, and only a handful of recipients receive funding each year.
While this is not an accessible funder, it is approachable and responsive, so contact them at the address provided below to learn more about it’s interest priorities for the year.
PROFILE: Established in 1963, the New York City-based Eugene M. Lang Foundation is the private family foundation of Eugene M. Lang. Lang, who was born in New York, went to public schools in the city and graduated from Swarthmore College. His company, REFAC Technology Development, held patents for many early financial and commercial technologies, including ATMs, barcode scanners and credit card verification systems. His early philanthropic activities included the establishment of the I Have a Dream Foundation, the New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and the Eugene M. Lang Center for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University. Lang retired from his business in 1997 to focus exclusively on his philanthropy. Since his death in 2017, the Lang Foundation has been steered mainly by surviving members of his family, with the goal of supporting “programs, projects and organizations that honor the Founder’s values.” The Lang Foundation makes grants in four areas of interest: arts and culture, education, health and human services, and justice. This funder’s grantmaking is concentrated in the New York City and Washington, D.C. regional areas, but national organizations have also received funding on occasion.
Grants for K-12 Education
Education is one of the Lang Foundation’s largest giving areas, with K-12 funding prioritizing underserved students and girls. Specific areas of interest include STEM, arts education and curricula that encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and social responsibility. The foundation has given to in-school and out-of-school learning programs, including a $700,000 gift to New York City’s Exploring the Arts Lang Scholars Program, which provides performing arts education, college preparation and mentoring to underserved teen fellows. Other K-12 grantees include Pennsylvania’s Chester Charter School for the Arts, which is the home of the Eugene M. Lang Center for Health Sciences, and the Lang Science Program at the American Museum of Natural History, which runs out-of-school STEM programs for K-12 students.
Grants for Higher Education
The Lang Foundation does not name higher education as a specific area of grantmaking interest, but it has a long history of supporting colleges and Universities in the Northeast. Eugene Lang’s alma mater, Swarthmore College, has received ongoing support and is home to the Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. In New York City, the foundation has supported a range of public and private colleges including Baruch College, the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Columbia University and Marymount College.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Eugene M. Lang Foundation supports arts and culture broadly through its arts and preservation funding areas. Arts funding supports programs and venues that offer “excellence and accessibility,” as well as film and video projects that promote social justice. Grants stemming from the foundation’s preservation initiative support the preservation of historical buildings and outdoor spaces of cultural importance. Past arts and culture grants have gone to New York City’s Frick Collection, the Capital City Symphony, Concerts in Motion of New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Flea Theater, the Studio Museum of Harlem, Washington’s Atlas Performing Arts Center and the New York Historical Society.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Lang Foundation supports civic engagement via its justice giving area, which recently named “implementing strategies to activate disenfranchised voters” as one of its three main priorities. One recent grantee is Project Pericles, a consortium of 30 liberal arts colleges that aim to inspire students’ sense of social and civic responsibility. Funding has also gone to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation and the Eugene M. Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility at Swarthmore College.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
The Lang Foundation’s health and human services grantmaking area focuses on “interconnectivity of health and social conditions and the importance of addressing inequities in connection to social determinants of health.” Grantmaking in this area prioritizes projects and organizations that are evidence-based, sustainable and replicable, as well as those that “adapt nimbly to the policy environment.” Past grantees include New York Hospital, the National Center for Creative Aging, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Grants for Criminal Justice Reform
The Lang Foundation’s grantmaking for justice only recently named criminal justice reform as an area of interest. The overarching goal of grantmaking in this area is an equitable justice system for the U.S., including support and interventions for people who are at-risk, incarcerated or re-entering communities after serving sentences. Grantees include the Equal Justice Initiative and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
Lang’s justice grantmaking focus area has also recently named “security and opportunity for community members struggling on the path to citizenship” as an area of priority. Early grantmaking has supported New Jersey’s Center for Immigrant Representation, a project of the Immigrant Justice Corps that aims to provide legal representation and “close the justice gap” for immigrants in the U.S.
Important Grant Details:
The Lang Foundation’s grantmaking has ranged from $2 million to $9 million in recent years, with grants ranging from a few thousand to over $1 million. This funder supports a broad range of organizations and institutions, ranging from elite colleges and universities to small grassroots outfits working in underserved communities of New York and Washington D.C. For additional information about recently funded projects, see the foundation’s featured projects page.
The Eugene M. Lang Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding from organizations that are not prior grantees. It does, however, invite organizations working in its areas of interest to introduce themselves and their work, “provided that no solicitation of gifts is included in the introduction.” The foundation can be reached via the form on its contact page or via telephone at 718-309-8463.
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