Bruce Kovner, worth $6.6 billion at age 77, has come a long way since his boho days driving taxi cabs in New York City while writing and taking classes at Juilliard. The Harvard grad changed career paths and ended up founding a hedge fund in the 1980s, where he made a fortune. He retired from Caxton Associates in 2011 and created CAM Capital a year later to manage his personal investment and business portfolios.
But Kovner’s love of the arts has always loomed large. In fact, Caxton is named after the first printer of books in the English language. And Kovner once gave $2 million to finance a Pennyroyal Caxton Bible project, a deluxe illustrated Bible. All that is to say, Kovner is no typical Wall Streeter.
His philanthropy has mixed arts and educational interests with more right-leaning ideological work, too. Kovner serves on the board and was once chairman of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the well-heeled conservative think tank that held some $310 million in assets in a recent year and raised more than $60 million from individuals and foundations. AEI does a lot of policy work around government spending and free markets, but also holds more controversial stances like stoking the panic over so-called critical race theory in schools, or, as they put it, working to “inform the public of the ideology’s true nature and prevalence.”
But what’s new with one of America’s richest Wall Streeters these days? Have his interest areas held steady as he’s continued to give through his Kovner Foundation? Here’s a quick rundown:
Kovner is still enthusiastic about the arts
The Kovners are deeply involved in the New York City art scene. Bruce Kovner is the chair emeritus at the Juilliard School and serves on the boards of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera, while Suzie Kovner is on the board at Carnegie Hall.
The foundation’s arts grantmaking focuses on artist training and development, and performing arts in the United States and the United Kingdom. Kovner’s gifts to Juilliard include $25 million toward a new wing and scholarships in 2005, $20 million for a music program in 2012, and $60 million for a new scholarship program in 2013. In 2019, the last year for which tax records are available, the Kovner Foundation gave another $5 million to Juilliard.
Suzie Kovner, who once worked at Sotheby’s Auction House, established the first U.S. office for the National Theatre of Great Britain, where she worked to develop the company’s American following and network of supporters. The Kovner Foundation’s grantmaking includes gifts to the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, Israeli Chamber Project, and Carnegie Hall: Ensemble Connect.
Kovner Foundation Executive Director Diane Morrison is a co-producer at Affinity Company Theater.
Education is still a top interest
In a world where many funders have moved on from charter school work, or at least reduced their emphasis on charters as the saviors of K-12 education, it’s notable that the Kovner Foundation continues its steady support in this area. Suzie serves as vice chair of Success Academy Charter Schools, a network of innovative charter schools in New York City, which the foundation steadily supports. Other familiar names, including Achievement First and Charter School Growth Fund, continue to rake in money. The Kovner Foundation also works the policy angle, supporting organizations that promote educational choice with a special focus on school vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs and education savings accounts.
Conservative policy work, but with a few twists
The Kovner Foundation’s policy work fits under the grantmaking umbrella called “Opportunity Society,” backing organizations that promote “free expression, free markets, free trade, equality before the law and the principles of limited government.” The foundation continues to support AEI, as well as Manhattan Institute and Institute for Justice.
However, Kovner is also one of a number of conservative funders who have taken an interest in criminal justice reform — a rare area of overlap between donors on the left and right — supporting organizations like the Innocence Project, Centurion and and Lambda Legal, devoted to civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
In my coverage of REFORM Alliance, the star-studded criminal justice reform organization, I noted the mix of funders involved in the fight, including Robert Kraft and Michael Novogratz. With nearly a quarter-billion in assets per tax records, Kovner Foundation’s work in this space is worth watching, as well.