SOURCE OF WEALTH: Private Investor
FUNDING AREAS: Education & Youth, Environment, Media, Health & Human Services
OVERVIEW: Michael Davis and Jyll Johnstone move their philanthropy through the Skywords Family Foundation. Media is the couple’s main interest: the couple support Canobie Films, where Janet works as a director. Other support goes to farming in the Bay Area. According to available tax filings, the foundation awarded nearly $4.1 million in grants in 2017.
BACKGROUND: Born in New York City, Michael A. Davis attended Harvard University. He is a private investor and chairman of the board of Cyanotech, a world leader in microalgae technology.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION & YOUTH: Davis and Johnstone’s foundation has supported Mann Waldorf School, The Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training, and American Medical College of Homeopathy (which filed for bankruptcy in 2015).
ENVIRONMENT: The family has partnered with two others in a Biodynamic farm in Mendocino County, California. Jyll says they’re “attempting a return to a more traditional and balanced farm ecosystem.” The family has funded Ginungagap Foundation, whose grantees include Summerfield Waldorf School Farm, and Equity Trust, whose mission is to “promote equity in the world by changing the way people think about and hold property.”
MEDIA: The couple supports Canobie Films, where Jyll has been directing and producing her documentaries since the early 1990s. Other grantees include SteinerBooks.
HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: Grantees include The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, an addiction treatment center, and The Gesundheit Institute, a nonprofit healthcare organization.
LOOKING FORWARD: Expect the couple to continue to focus on their unique interest areas, with an eye towards the media and the environment.
CONTACT:
Skywords Family Foundation
235 Montgomery St., 17th Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94104
