Passport Foundation
OVERVIEW: Associated with the hedge fund Passport Capital, the Passport Foundation’s conservation grantmaking is unique in that it focuses on the impacts of environmental contaminants.
IP TAKE: The foundation lacks transparency and does not accept unsolicited proposals. This funder does not accept unsolicited applications and does not provide a way of getting into contact, so this will be a tough nut to crack.
PROFILE: In 2000, John H. Burbank founded hedge fund Passport Capital. He later established The Passport Foundation, a philanthropy associated with the hedge fund and in a recent year gave away around $1.2 million. John Howard Burbank III earned a BA from Duke University and an MBA from Stanford. Early in his career, he held various investment research positions with Bay Area hedge funds. Later, he worked as equity analyst and consultant at the JMG Triton Offshore Fund. In 2000, he founded Passport Capital, which specializes in global investments.
Grants for the Environment
The foundation lacks transparency limiting available information on its grantmaking strategies and priorities. However, tax filings suggest a focus on environmental health rather than traditional conservation funding areas. While the foundation does not maintain a website providing further programmatic information, filings show an interest eliminating contaminants from the environment.
In 2009, the foundation launched its Science Innovation Fund to “expand knowledge of the impacts of environmental contaminants on human health to inform and advance, first and foremost, chemicals regulation and risk assessment reform; and secondarily, public health and clinical care policies and practices.” It has funded such studies as “Estrogen and Androgen Receptor Activities of Hydraulic Fracturing Chemicals and Surface and Ground Water in a Drilling-Dense Region” which examined whether chemicals used in fracking can disrupt human sex hormones.
Past grantees include the Bluegreen Alliance Foundation; Earthjustice; Environmental Defense Fund; NRDC; Washington Toxics Coalition; Clean Production Action; Environmental Health Strategy Center; and Forsythia Foundation, whose mission is to promote “healthier people and environments by reducing harmful chemicals in our lives.” Forsythia was founded by Passport Foundation co-founder Alison Carlson.
Grants for Health
This funder’s health grants are very broad, often taking an environmental approach; however, grantees in the area of health have included the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Greater San Francisco and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Grants for Education
Burbank’s education philanthropy has prioritized the San Francisco Bay Area. He has regularly supported the University of California, San Francisco, as well as Burlingame Community Education Foundation, the Edgewood Center for Children and Families and Bay-area operations of Hedge Fund Cares, which aims to reduce child abuse. On the national level, Burbank has supported Code for America.
Important Grant Information
Grants range in the low thousands.
PEOPLE:
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CONTACT:
Passport Foundation
1 Market St., Ste. 2200, Steuart Tower
San Francisco, CA 94105