Formerly known as the Swanee Hunt Operating Fund, the Hunt Alternatives Fund (HAF) “advances innovative and inclusive approaches to social change at the local, national, and global levels.” The Fund was established in 1981 in Denver, Colorado by Helen and Swanee Hunt “to provide grants and technical assistance in the field of human service.” Since its founding, it has contributed nearly $90 million to social change initiatives through a combination of grant-making and operating programs. Today the Fund is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and operates the following major programs:

* ARTWorks for Kids promotes private and public support for arts organizations and initiatives that “transform the lives of kids” in the classrooms and communities of Eastern Massachusetts. To achieve this objective, ARTWorks uses a four-pronged approach: (a) Advocacy: “educating policymakers to increase public funding”; (b) Outreach: “forging partnerships to identify new donors”; (c) Convening: “building a coalition to strengthen youth arts”; and (d) Grant-Making: “funding arts organizations directly.”

* Demand Abolition supports the movement to end modern-day slavery by “combating the demand for illegal commercial sex in the U.S.” Specifically, this program conducts and disseminates research, educates policymakers, and provides technical assistance to criminal-justice professionals whose work touches upon the topic of human sex-trafficking. HAF reports that several hundred thousand people are moved across national borders each year (including an estimated 17,500 who are brought into the United States) to be bought and sold for sex, most of them women and children.

* Women Moving Millions (WMM) was launched in November 2007 “to inspire gifts of $1 million and above to women’s foundations to effect lasting social change by improving the lives of women and girls.” By the time WMM’s first phase drew to a close in April 2009, some 100 donors had already combined to contribute more than $180 million to the cause.

* The Institute For Inclusive Security uses research, training, and advocacy to “promote the inclusion of all stakeholders, particularly women, in peace processes.” This project works with a global network of well over 1,000 female leaders from more than 40 conflict regions around the world.

* Political Parity “strives to double the number of women at the highest levels of political office.”

* Prime Movers: Cultivating Social Capital is a multi-year fellowship program for national-level social-movement leaders who work to “create a more just society.” Through this initiative, HAF offers financial support, policy contacts, and advocacy expertise to such leaders so as to “encourage the growth of pivotal social movements.”

HAF is a member of the Peace and Security Funders Group, an association of foundations, charitable trusts, and individual philanthropists who “make grants or expenditures that contribute to peace and global security.”

Among the organizations funded by HAF are the the International Crisis Group, and the Tides Center. (For sources of information on HAF’s grant-making activities, click here)

To view a list of additional noteworthy grantees of the Hunt Alternatives Fund, click here.

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