SOURCE OF WEALTH: Ziff-Davis, Ziff Brothers Investments, Ochs-Ziff Capital Management
FUNDING AREAS: Education, New York, Environment
OVERVIEW: Robert Ziff is second of William Ziff’s three sons who together reinvested their family publishing fortune. Robert Ziff supports education, the environment and New York Causes through the New York City-based Robert D. Ziff Foundation. According to available tax filings, the foundation awarded $5 million in grants in 2018.
BACKGROUND: Robert Ziff studied computer and electrical engineering at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. He was also first in his class at Cornell Law School, where earned a J.D. degree and edited the Cornell Law Review. Robert Ziff worked with his brothers at Ziff Brothers Investments, where they parlayed the family fortune into many billions.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: Robert Ziff’s education philanthropy has prioritized his alma maters. At Harvard, he has supported the intramural hockey program, in which he played during his undergraduate years. He also gave $2 million to Harvard’s collegiate hockey program to endow a coach’s position. At Cornell, Ziff has endowed the Robert D. Ziff Professorship of Law and the Robert B. Kent Public Interest Fund, which supports a post-graduate public interest fellowship. Other past higher education grantees include the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and Rackham Graduate School. In New York City, Ziff has supported private schools including the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, the Browning School and the Ideal School of Manhattan.
NEW YORK: Ziff regularly supports a broad variety of New York City-based organizations. Past grantees include Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, public media outlets WNET and THIRTEEN, the Central Park Conservancy, the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of New York, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the Robin Hood Foundation.
ENVIRONMENT: Robert Ziff has been a regular supporter of the National Audobon Society. He has also made donations to the National Resource Defense Council.
LOOKING FORWARD: Robert Ziff is likely to continue supporting his alma maters and organizations operating in New York City.
CONTACT:
Robert D. Ziff Foundation
350 Park Ave., 4th Fl.
New York, NY United States 10022
RELATED PROFILES:
