* Assets: $15,973,257 (2017)
* Grants Received: $2,177,447 (2017)
* Grants Awarded: $565,896 (2017)
The Barbra Streisand Foundation (BSF) was established and endowed in 1986 by the popular entertainer Barbra Streisand. Renowned as a highly visible, outspoken advocate for Democratic Party candidates and leftist causes, Ms. Streisand uses her Foundation to support organizations that share her political and social ideals while working “to build a healthier and more just world.” The recipients of BSF’s philanthropy are active in a variety of fields including environmentalism, civil rights, race relations, civil liberties, gay rights, voter education, women’s rights (including abortion rights), nuclear disarmament, gun control, poverty, and AIDS.
In 1993, in the aftermath of the previous year’s infamous Rodney King riots, BSF established, as one of its highest priorities, grantmaking projects targeting “economically disadvantaged youth in Los Angeles.”
From 1986 through 2013, BSF awarded grants totaling over $25 million to more than 800 organizations. The beneficiaries of BSF grants have included such organizations as the Advancement Project, the Alliance for Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Americans for Peace Now, ACORN, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Center for International Policy, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Climate Reality Project, Common Cause, Defenders of Wildlife, the Earth Action Network, the Earth Day Network, the Economic Policy Institute; the Environmental Defense Fund; the Environmental Media Association; the Environmental Working Group, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Human Rights Watch, the Institute for America’s Future, the League of Conservation Voters, the Liberty Hill Foundation, Mother Jones, the Nation Institute, the NARAL Pro-Choice America, the NAACP, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Oxfam America, the Peace Action Education Fund, People for the American Way, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Planned Parenthood, the Rainforest Action Network, the Rock the Vote Education Fund, the Tides Center and the Tides Foundation, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, and the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation.
To view a list of additional noteworthy BSF grantees, click here.
One of BSF’s most important figures is its executive director, Margery Tabankin, who has also held high-ranking posts with the Arca Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, the Liberty Hill Foundation, People for the American Way, the Proteus Fund, and Steven Spielberg‘s Righteous Persons Foundation.
(Information on grantees and monetary amounts courtesy of The Foundation Center, GuideStar, ActivistCash, the Capital Research Center and Undue Influence)