The HKH Foundation (HKHF) is named for Harold K. Hochschild, who for many years was the executive head of the American Metal Company, which merged in 1957 and eventually became AMAX Inc.  Mr. Hochschild also served a stint as director of the Correctional Association of New York, which emphasizes “the human capacity for change”; calls for “a more just and balanced approach to incarceration”; and envisions “a criminal justice system that… goes beyond a process of law and accountability to encompass social and racial equality on all levels.”

HKHF professes allegiance to one overriding philanthropic imperative: “to create new possibilities in pursuit of meaningful and lasting change” in a society where social and racial injustice are widespread. In this effort to “re-conceiv[e] ‘the possible,’” the Foundation seeks to “convene, challenge and enable visionaries, advocates and activists across our areas of grant-making.” These areas include Environmental Protection, Safeguarding Civil Liberties, Peace and Security, Civic Engagement, and Protecting the Commons. Further, HKHF has long reserved a portion of its philanthropy for groups and causes in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.

Among HKHF’s more notable grantees are the following: 350.org, the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, Alliance for Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Center for American Progress, the Center for Community Change, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Media and Democracy, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the Common Cause Education Fund, the Council for a Livable World, the Earth Day Network, the Earth Island Institute, the Economic Policy Institute, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Free Press, Friends of the Earth, Funding Exchange, Grassroots International, the Greenpeace Fund, the Institute for America’s Future, the Institute for Policy Studies, the Iraq Peace Fund, the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Media Matters for America, Military Families Speak Out, the Ms. Foundation, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the National Council of La Raza, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Security Archive, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Peace Action Education Fund, People for the American Way, the PIRG New Voters Project, Planned Parenthood, the Ploughshares Fund, Project Vote, the Proteus Fund, the Public Citizen Foundation, Rock the Vote, the Sierra Club Foundation, Sojourners, State Voices, the Tides Foundation, the True Majority Fund, Trust for Public Land, the Union of Concerned Scientists, United for Peace and Justice, the United States Students Association, USAction, and Win Without War.

To view a list of additional noteworthy grantees of the Harold K. Hochschild Foundation, click here.

A member of the Peace and Security Funders Group, HKHF will conclude its grant-making by the end of 2012.

A noteworthy trustee of HKHF is Adam Hochschild, son of founder Harold K. Hochschild. Born in 1942, Adam as a young man worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. After that, he spent ten years as a magazine editor and writer — first at Ramparts (a publication closely associated with the New Left), then at Mother Jones. Hochschild later published freelance articles in The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Nation, and elsewhere. The author of several books, Hochschild today teaches at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

(Information on grantees and monetary amounts courtesy of The Foundation Center, GuideStar, ActivistCash, the Capital Research Center and Undue Influence)