The latest perspectives, news, reports, and resources from around the Foundation.
Last month, Don Chen spoke with Dennis Price of Impact Alpha about the Surdna Foundation's impact investing strategy. Below is an excerpt—Read the full conversation on Impact Alpha. Surdna Foundation’s Don Chen: High-risk, high-reward impact…
Founders First Capital Partners (Founders First) announced its initial close for a $9 million Series A financing led by The Rockefeller Foundation and the Surdna Foundation to support underfunded and underrepresented entrepreneurs. This Series A…
In this podcast, Surdna President Don Chen and ImpactAlpha Editor David Bank discuss Surdna's early response to the pandemic, the foundation's increase in grantmaking for racial justice, mission investing, and where do we go from here?…
“Surdna was proud to support Building Equity and Alignment for Impact’s (BEA) report, which found that 12 national environmental funders gave just 1.3% of their annual giving to environmental justice groups. There is an abundance of BIPOC-led…
The Amplify Fund envisions a reality where Black, Indigenous, people of color and low-income people benefit from the changes caused by development, including wealth creation, land control and quality of life outcomes. Watch this short video to hear…
On this day of remembrance of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I'm acutely in need of solace and inspiration. In recent days, I've found myself reaching for his 1968 book, Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community? because the question of…
The Surdna Foundation is proud to be among the early signers of the Democracy Letter from philanthropists. As representatives of nonpartisan philanthropic institutions, serving rural, urban, and suburban communities across the nation, we…
Yesterday's lawless attack on Congress at the Capitol building was an unbelievable and yet completely predictable attempt to overturn the results of America's electoral process and subvert our democracy. It is a direct result of dangerous…
By Drew Adams A Boston-area regranting initiative might provide one blueprint for future arts funding, if not for equitable grantmaking more generally. The city of Boston has partnered with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design…
Now in its 103rd year, the Surdna Foundation is, amazingly, still led by descendants of our founder, John Emory Andrus. During most of its history, Surdna’s mission was nonspecific, a common practice at the turn of the 20th century. Until the…