SOURCE OF WEALTH: Broadway Producer
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Arts & Culture, Environment, TBD
OVERVIEW: Jeffrey Seller and his partner Josh Lehrer, a prominent photographer and documentarist, move their philanthropy through the recently-minted Seller-Lehrer Family Foundation (SLFF), whose mission is to fund dynamic educational, cultural, and environmental organizations and initiatives.
BACKGROUND: Jeffrey Seller grew up in Oak Park, Michigan and graduated from University of Michigan. He moved to New York City where he worked as a publicist, booking agent and producer. He co-produced Best Musical Tony Award-winning Broadway shows such as Rent and Avenue Q. He is also producer of Hamilton.
ISSUES:
ARTS & CULTURE: SLFF recently made a $1 million grant to Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit and a $2 million commitment to Dramatists Guild Foundation (DGF) which will support DGF’s Emergency Grants and Fellows Program. The foundation also made a $50,000 grant to Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) towards their arts programming in partnership with the International Rescue Committee’s Refugee Youth Summer Academy (RYSA).
ENVIRONMENT: SLFF gave a multiyear grant of approximately $375,000 with a matching gift component to the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive (AATA) to support its tree-cloning programs.
LOOKING FORWARD: This is a wealthy theater couple to watch in the coming years as grantmaking kicks off, and with it, hopefully a bit more transparency as well. The foundation also has an interest in the Jewish community.
LINK: Jeffrey Seller Twitter
