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- Assets: $4,642,676 (2005)
- Grants Received: $1,445,844 (2005)
- Grants Awarded: $1,586,894 (2005)
The Ben & Jerry's Foundation (BJF) was established in 1985 from a donation of stock from Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., the ice cream company founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. (Cohen is also the co-founder of the antiwar group True Majority.) In addition to the original endowment, each year Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. makes a large donation (generally exceeding $1.1 million) to the Foundation. Jerry Greenfield is the Foundation's Vice Chairman and President, and Rebecca Golden is its Director.
A member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group, the Ben & Jerry's Foundation supports organizations that deem social change imperative because they perceive the United States as a nation whose policies harm people and the natural environment alike. BJF's awards range between $1,000 and $15,000 apiece, and are earmarked to fund projects that will, in the Foundation's opinion, accomplish one or more of the following objectives:
- lead to societal, institutional and/or environmental change
- address the root causes of social or environmental problems
- lead to new ways of thinking and acting
- help ameliorate an unjust or destructive situation by empowering constituents
- facilitate leadership development and strengthen the self-empowerment efforts of those who have traditionally been disenfranchised in our society
- support movement building and collective action.
BJF recently endorsed a document called the Earth Charter, which blames capitalism for many of the world's environmental, social, and economic problems. The Charter maintains that "the dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species. The benefits of development are not shared equitably and the gap between rich and poor is widening."
Among the organizations funded by the Ben & Jerry's Foundation are: the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute; the Border Action Network; Grassroots International; the Institute for Policy Studies; the Tides Foundation; the Tides Center; the Institute for Social Ecology; Mothers for Natural Law; Global Exchange; the Ruckus Society; the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN); the Center for Health, Environment and Justice; the New York Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides; the Wildlands Project; the League of Wilderness Defenders; Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group; the Sustainable Food Center; Physicians for Social Responsibility; the Ecology Center; the Union of Concerned Scientists; the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project; the Boundary Waters Wilderness Foundation; the Center for Economic Justice; Centro Independiente de Trabajadores Agricolas; the Citizens' Environmental Coalition; the Coalition on Homelessness; the Community Coalition for Environmental Justice; the Community In-Power Development Association; Desis Rising Up and Moving; For The People; Just Food; the Power U Center for Social Change; the Wild Farm Alliance; Women for Afghan Women; Action for Social and Ecological Justice; the Center for Environmental Equity; the Coalition for People; Great Old Broads for Wilderness; the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization; the Rocky Mountain Peace Center; Young Women United; the Sunshine Project; and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG).
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