Wilf Family Foundations
OVERVIEW: The Wilf Family Foundations are a conglomerate of six private family foundations based in New Jersey. The Wilf Family Foundations’ largest area of giving is Jewish causes but they also support education, social justice, democracy, health, disaster relief and human services.
IP TAKE: The six Wilf Family Foundations maintain a single website, but are not approachable grantmakers, chosing to preselect organizations to fund. These foundations are steady supporters of Jewish organizations in New York and New Jersey, but also support a broad array of other causes and have recently prioritized social justice and Jewish refugees from Ukraine. A connection to a family member or existing grantee will be key here; the Wilf contact page states clearly that they will not respond to requests for funding.
PROFILE: Based in New Jersey, the Wilf Family Foundations are comprised of six separate but affiliated philanthropic vehicles established by members of the Wilf family. Brothers Harry and Joseph Wilf were born in Poland in 1921 and 1925, respectively, and were survivors of the Holocaust. With their wives, Judith and Elizabeth, they emigrated to the U.S. in 1950, settling in New Jersey. Harry and Joseph Wilf established a real estate company, Garden Homes, which has become one of the largest real estate development and management companies in the country, with a broad range of residential and commercial holdings in several states and a reported net worth of over $5 billion. Harry and Joseph Wilf passed away in 1992 and 2016, but their businesses and their philanthropies are run by Harry’s son, Leonard, and Joseph’s sons, Zygi and Mark, and their families. In addition to their work in real estate, the Wilfs own the Minnesota Vikings NFL franchise.
The Wilf Family Foundations are comprised of six entities: the Wilf Family Foundation, the Joseph and Elizabeth Wilf Foundation, the L.A.W. Foundation, the Mark and Jane Wilf Foundation, the Z. S. and M. Wilf Foundation and the Zygmunt and Audrey Wilf Foundation. These foundations maintain a single website that offers only sparse information about their specific grantmaking priorities and practices. Giving areas vary somewhat by individual foundation, but more than half of all grantmaking supports Jewish causes. Other areas of interest include education, arts and culture, voting rights, criminal justice reform, military and veterans’ causes, humanitarian relief, health and basic needs for vulnerable people. The foundations do not name geographic priorities, but tax filings reveal concentrations of grantmaking in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Florida and Israel.
Grants for Jewish Causes
Jewish causes account for more than half of the Wilf Family Foundations’ collective giving. The foundations give broadly to Jewish religious, educational, cultural and human service organizations with preference for organizations serving the Jewish communities of New York, New Jersey and Israel. Recently, the Wilfs have actively supported organizations working with Jewish refugees fleeing the ongoing war in Ukraine, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, where Mark Wilf serves as Chairman of the Board of Governors, and the Jewish Federations of North America. Another significant gift recently went to the New Jersey-based Jewish Federation of Metro-West, which received $15 million in 2022 for its cultural and human services programs in local communities. Grantees that have received ongoing support from Wilf Family Foundations include Birthright Israel, the Anti-Defamation League, the United Jewish Appeal Federation and the Jerusalem Foundation. New York- and New Jersey-area Jewish grantees include New York City’s Park East Synagogue, the Henry Street Settlement, the Jewish Museum and Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael of New Jersey, among others. In Israel, the foundation has given to Boys Town Jerusalem, the Friends of the Israel Defense Fund, the Israel Emergency Alliance and the Ohr Torah Stone Institutions of Israel. The foundations also regularly support Jewish K-12 and religious education programs in the New York and New Jersey areas, and have provided ongoing support to the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Rabbinical College of America and Yeshiva University in New York City. It is worth noting that the foundations issued a statement in 2022 disagreeing with Yeshiva University’s decision not to recognize the university’s Pride Alliance as an official club on its campus.
Grants for Higher Education
In addition to its support of Jewish education and schools, the Wilf Family Foundations support colleges and universities in the U.S. with grants for educational programs, general operating support and Hillel programs. Significant among higher education recipients is New York University, which has received ongoing support from the foundations, and the New York Law School, which recently received a $5 million gift for the establishment of the Wilf Scholars Program, which will “train a new generation of social justice leaders.” Other grantees include the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, Roger Williams University and the California Institute of Technology.
Grants for Democracy and Criminal Justice Reform
Following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the Wilf Family Foundations announced $4 million in grants as the initial installment of a long-term commitment to social justice causes. According to its website, the foundations aim to support “meaningful social justice efforts” in the U.S. and abroad, although early grantmaking has mainly remained in the U.S. Areas of specific focus include education equity, economic opportunity, the expansion and protection of voting rights, access to human services and criminal justice reform. Grantees of the program include Camp Equity, Black Voters Matter, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Center on Policing at Rutgers University and Fines and Fees Justice Center.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
The Wilf Family Foundations give regularly to hospital systems, medical colleges and disease research institutes. Giving in these areas is mainly limited to the U.S. In the New York and New Jersey area, the foundations support the Atlantic Health System, Weill Cornell Hospital, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Mount Sinai Health System. Grantees working in disease research include the Lupus Research Alliance, the Dysautonomia Foundation and the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation, among others. The foundations’ collective giving for COVID-19 relief totaled about $5 million and included support for organizations in the U.S. and Israel involved in vaccine efforts, healthcare worker support, critical care and social services for elderly people.
Grants for Housing, Homelessness, Food Systems, Work and Economic Opportunity
The Wilf Family Foundations name “community services” as a grantmaking area of interest and support a range of nonprofits that provide basic needs to vulnerable people in Jewish and other communities. Giving stems from all six Wilf Family Foundations and has gone to organizations that work in the areas of affordable housing, homelessness, food systems and economic opportunity and aid. Grantees include Self Help Community Services of New York City, Jewish Family Services of Central New Jersey, Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Interfaith Food Pantry of Morris Plains, New Jersey.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Arts and culture represent a smaller area of giving for the Wilf Family Foundations, with a significant portion of grantmaking focusing on organizations based in New York and New Jersey. The foundations support a broad range of arts organizations, including landmark New York City venues and smaller community-based organizations in New Jersey. Grantees include the Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Public Theater and the Papermill Playhouse.
Grants for Disaster Relief, Humanitarian Aid, Immigrants and Refugees
The Wilf Family Foundations’ grantmaking for disaster relief and humanitarian aid mostly overlaps with its Jewish giving and is conducted through Jewish federations and international organizations. Recent giving has focused on the humanitarian and refugee crisis in Ukraine. Grants have gone to the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish Federations of North America and World ORT, all of which have collaborated recently to support Ukrainian refugees.
Grants for Military and Veterans
Grantmaking for military and veterans causes represents only a small portion of the Wilf Family Foundations’ total grantmaking. According to its website, funding from this focus area aims to “provide support and care for veterans and their families.” Grantees include the Green Beret Foundation, the Heroes to Heroes Foundation and Operation Finally Home.
Important Grant Details
Together, these philanthropies gave away over $20 million in a recent year. Grants have been awarded in amounts of up to $1 million, but the average grant size appears to be about $20,000. Each of the six Wilf Family Foundations supports Jewish causes, which account for more than half of total grantmaking. Grantmaking from all six foundations has gone to large national and international organizations and NGOs, as well as small, community-led groups, especially in the New York and New Jersey areas. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the Wilf Family Foundations’ news page.
The six Wilf Family Foundations are represented by one website that offers scant information about the separate organizations and their grantmaking. None of the foundations run open application programs or post RFPs. The foundations may be reached via their contact page, which states that the foundations will not respond to requests for funding.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: