New-Land Foundation

New-Land Foundation

Overview

* Assets: $37,401,884 (2017)
* Grants Received: $0 (2017)
* Grants Awarded: $1,560,776 (2017)


The New-Land Foundation (NLF), which has been inactive since 2016, was established in New York City in 1941 by the German-born Austrian political figure Joseph Buttinger (1906-92) and his American-born wife, Muriel Gardiner Buttinger (1901-85). Mr. Buttinger joined the Austrian Social-Democratic party as an adolescent, became its secretary at the age of 24, and chaired the Socialist underground in Austria during the mid-1930s. When Germany occupied his country in 1938, Buttinger fled with his wife to Paris, where he served as chairman of the exiled Socialists. In 1939 the couple moved to the United States with Muriel’s daughter from a previous marriage. In the 1950s, the Buttingers aided North Vietnamese refugees in South Vietnam. They also subsidized the democratic socialist magazine Dissent, edited by Irving Howe. Aiming to “foster positive social change throughout the global community,” NLF’s grant-making was divided into five major program areas:

(1) The Environment Program directed its philanthropy toward organizations that embraced the anti-capitalist agendas of radical environmentalism. Leading recipients of NLF environmental grants included the Earth Day Network, the Earth Island InstituteEarthjusticeEnvironmental Defense, the Environmental Working Group, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Rainforest Alliance, the Sierra Club, the Tides Center, the Trust for Public Land, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Wilderness Society.

(2) The Peace/Arms Control Program sought to shrink, and to alter the nature of, the American military, which the Foundation viewed as the instigator of much international strife. Key grantees included the Arms Control Association, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Nuclear Watch, the Ploughshares Fund, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In an effort to further advance its anti-military agendas, NLF became a member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group.

(3) The Population Control Program aimed to stop, or to at least slow, the growth of the world’s population by funding left-wing feminist organizations that supported unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand. Among those grantees were the Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Population Action International.

(4) The Civil Rights/Justice Program was founded on the premise that racism and discrimination pervade virtually every facet of American life, affecting especially nonwhites, women, homosexuals, the poor, foreign-born immigrants, and Muslims. Notable grantees in this program area were the Alliance for Justice and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

(5) The Leadership Program sought to help community organizers and activists maximize their effectiveness in advocating for social change. The Institute for America’s Future was a particularly significant beneficiary of NLF funds through this program.

To view a list of additional noteworthy grantees of the New-Land Foundation, click here.

The longtime environmentalist and anti-military activist Hal Harvey served stints as NLF’s vice-president and president.

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

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