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- Assets: $382,799,097 (2005)
- Grants Received: $50,334 (2005)
- Grants Awarded: $57,867,309 (2005)
As the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, the Verizon Foundation (VF) is a leading funder of leftist organizations that focus on anti-gun activism; environmentalism; civil rights, civil liberties, animal rights; prisoners' rights; multiculturalism; and minority preferences. The Capital Research Center, which was established in 1984 to study non-profit organizations and to rate them along an ideological spectrum, classifies VF as “radical left.”
Between 2000 and 2005, the Verizon Foundation made grants totaling more than $400 million to programs, partnerships, and organizations in the United States and around the world. In 2005, the Foundation awarded more than 3,500 grants totaling $74.8 million to charitable and nonprofit agencies. Most grants range between $5,000 and $10,000 apiece. Viewing the United States as a nation where racial and economic injustice are rampant, VF focuses its philanthropy on groups “that serve the needs of diverse communities … as well as people who are economically and socially disadvantaged.”
VF has recently developed two major grant-making programs:
Literacy Program: Devoted to “[i]mproving basic literacy skills in the United States and abroad,” this program “provides more than 45,000 free online K-12 educational resources to help teachers prepare students for success in the 21st Century.”
Domestic Violence Program: This program has distributed more than 30,000 cell phones, along with service and airtime, to shelters for use by victims of domestic violence. According to VF, "one in four women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime; domestic violence is the single largest cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44 in the United States; ... approximately 900,000 parents are beaten or abused by their children each year; [and] some 57 percent of teenagers know someone who has been physically, sexually, or verbally abusive in a dating relationship."
The President of VF is Patrick R. Gaston, who also sits on the Boards of the NAACP, Generations United, the National Latino Children's Institute, America's Charities, the Foundation of the University of West Indies, and the World Institute on Disability.
Among the many groups the Verizon Foundation supports are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN); the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; the National Council of La Raza; the American Civil Liberties Union; the Brookings Institution; the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund; the National Urban League; the Gay Men’s Health Crisis Center; the Congressional Black Caucus; Earthwatch; the AIDS Action Committee; Save the Bay; the National Organization on Disability; the National Council of Negro Women; Prison Fellowship Ministries; Black Cops Against Police; the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence; the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation; Defenders of Wildlife; the EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund; Homeless Solutions, Inc.; the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund; the Latino Issues Forum; Lesbian and Gay Community; Rails to Trails Conservancy; the Rainforest Action Network; the Arabic Society; the Sierra Club; the Wilderness Society; Public Broadcasting System; National Public Radio; Population Connection (formerly known as Zero Population Growth); the American Indian College Fund; and the American Women’s Economic Fund.
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