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The Massachusetts-based CarEth Foundation is an arm of the Proteus Fund, and shares the latter's address, phone and fax numbers, website, and contacts. The two also share board members and Program Directors.
The CarEth Foundation's initial funding came from G. Sterling Grumman, who made his fortune in the stock market (with G. S. Grumman & Associates). He was also a board member of the Center for Defense Information. The Foundation was named for two of Mr. Grumman's aunts, Carol and Ethel Grumman (taking the first three letters from each of their names). After Mr. Grumman died in a mountain climbing accident when he was in his seventies, his sister Helen took the reins of the Foundation, becoming its first President; today she is a member of the Foundation's board of directors. Another Grumman sister, Ethel Grumman Ackley, is the Foundation's current President. Two of Ethel's in-laws, Scott and Ted Ackley, are the Foundation's Vice President and Secretary, respectively. Still another relative, Lee Grumman, is the Treasurer.
Devoted primarily to anti-war causes, the CarEth Foundation deems it axiomatic that "the major cause of destructive conflict" around the world is "the existing polarization between the powerful and oppressed." In the Foundation's view, international peace can best be achieved through a socialist model of wealth redistribution. As the CarEth mission statement puts it, the ideal is "a compassionate world of enduring and just peace with social, economic, and political equality for all." In its analysis of current trends around the world, the Foundation makes no specific mention of the social injustices of any nation except those of the United States, where, the Foundation laments, many people "have been excluded from full participation" in political and economic life.
Relatedly, the Foundation seeks to use its philanthropy to "promote the creation of a global community of shared values," a goal founded on the premise that all cultures and traditions, regardless of how antithetical their worldviews or objectives may be, can find common ground upon which to build harmonious relationships. Islamist terrorism and its calls for worldwide jihad have not prevented the Foundation from reassessing its notion that power and wealth imbalances are the major obstacles stopping nations from "unit[ing] in the common purpose of becoming a global community founded in compassionate peace."
Consistent with its "global community" ideal, the CarEth Foundation, which is a member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group, advocates the creation of a worldwide political system wherein all nations must answer to a "global governance framework" founded upon "a vibrant, representative, and multinational social contract."
A notable CarEth Foundation Director is Byron Rushing, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, a South Africa rights activist, a former director of the Museum of Afro-American History, and a board member of Grassroots International. Rushing has made racial issues in employment and academia the focus of his legislative activities, strongly supporting affirmative action policies in those areas.
CarEth Foundation Program Director Dini Merz also serves as the Program Director of the Colombe Foundation and of the Proteus Fund's Peace and Security campaign. Previously, Merz was the Program Director of the Tremaine Foundation, a board member and Treasurer of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, and a board member of the Unitarian Society of New Haven.
The CarEth Foundation earmarks its grants for organizations it believes are doing important work to promote international peace. These are predominantly leftist groups that are harshly critical of American foreign and domestic policies, blaming the United States for virtually all international conflicts and inequities. Among the beneficiaries of CarEth Foundation funding are: the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; International A.N.S.W.E.R.; Global Exchange; the American Friends Service Committee; the Institute for Public Accuracy; the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization; the New Israel Fund; the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Grassroots International; Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting; Ta'ayush; Nonviolent Peaceforce; the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy; Friends of the Earth; Peace Brigades; Fifty Years Is Not Enough; the Center for Media and Democracy; the Center for Economic Justice; the Center for International Policy; Grassroots International; the National Council of Churches; Hague Appeal for Peace; the Institute for Policy Studies; the Global Women's History Project; the International Media Project; Jane Addams Peace Association, Inc.; Rethinking Schools, Inc.; the South African Development Fund; the Middle East Research and Information Project; the National Emergency Committee for a New U.S.; the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies; New Voices on Globalization; The Dialogue Project; the World Policy Institute; the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Foreign Policy in Focus; Free Burma Coalition; Students for a Free Tibet; Peaceworkers UK; the Latin American Working Group; Massachusetts Jobs With Justice; Probe International; and the Washington Office on Latin America.
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