OVERVIEW: Film producer Gary Magness and family make grants through the Gary Magness Family Foundation, whose Los Angeles grantmaking supports health, human services, and education, among other causes.
IP TAKE: The foundation keeps a low profile and does not accept unsolicited proposals. Los Angeles and Denver serve as important sites of philanthropy. Networking may be grantseekers best bet here.
PROFILE: Film producer Gary Magness is on the Forbes billionaire list. Born in Texas, Gary Magness attended Western State College of Colorado. Magness’s late father, Bob, started cable giant TCI, then merged with AT&T in 1999 in a $48 billion deal. Magness inherited half of his father’s fortune. Magness and his wife Sarah founded Smokewood Entertainment, which produced the Oscar-winning film Precious. The couple lives in Denver, but also has a home in Los Angeles.
The couple conduct their grantmaking through the Gary Magness Family Foundation, which maintains a low profile and no internet presence. It prioritizes Los Angeles across its giving interests, which address
Grants for Health and Human Services
Magness and Sarah via their foundation recently gave a $1.5 million donation to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles towards a full-time certified music therapist to work with patients recovering from life-threatening illnesses.
The family has also supported Food Bank of the Rockies, Weld County Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, and HollyRod Foundation, which provides “medical, physical, and emotional support to individuals living with Parkinson’s Disease as well as families of children with autism.”
Grants for Education and Youth
The Magnesses have supported Berkeley Hall School, Alliance for Children’s Rights, and The Eva Longoria Foundation, among others. The foundation is also a supporter of Whole Kids Foundation, funding salad bar equipment for 400 schools across the country; the couple is interested in improving food access.
Magness and Sarah also helped launch the Precious Center for Teen Leadership, part of the Fresh Air Fund’s outdoor camp in upstate New York for inner-city girls.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Grantees include The Art of Elysium, which empowers “artists and communities of need to join together and emotionally triumph over their circumstances through art.“
Grants for the Environment
Apart from their work with Fresh Air Fund, the family has also supported National Resource Defense Fund.
Grants for Global Development
The foundation’s grantmaking has supported Careyes Foundation which seeks to “catalyze innovative programs related to education, health, sport, ecology, agriculture and art in order to improve the well-being of local communities a long the South Pacific coast of Jalisco, Mexico.” The couple sits on the residents’ board of Careyes Foundation.
Important Grant Details
In a past year, the foundation made around $1.3 million in grants, but grants tend to be modest. This foundation does not accept unsolicited applications.
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CONTACT:
Gary Magness Family Foundation
1200 17th St., Ste. 660
Denver, CO 80202
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