Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund

OVERVIEW: The Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund supports education, arts and culture, the environment and health. A significant portion of its funding goes to organizations in New York and New England. 

IP TAKE: This low-profile funder tends to give large grants to small organizations in which family members maintain interest. Unfortunately, the fund does not accept unsolicited proposals, making it less accessible. This is not a funder that considers outreach or emails, since it suppresses its contact information. Though not seemingly conservative, this funder backs related causes, but it also funds non-conservative organizations. It likes to remain flexible in a variety of ways.

PROFILE: Shelby Cullom Davis was an American business executive who established the investment firm Shelby Cullom Davis & Company in the late 1940s. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland in the 1970s. Davis died in 1994, and his family established the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund in his memory with an endowment from Davis’s will. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, the fund has assets of between $2 billion and $2.5 billion, but keeps a surprisingly low public profile. It does not maintain a website and employs just one staff member. According to tax filings, the fund supports higher education, arts and culture, environmental conservation and healthcare, but it works flexibly and has given to other causes as well. A significant portion of grantmaking goes to organizations operating in New York and New England. 

Grants for Higher Education

The Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund does not articulate priorities for its higher education grantmaking, but recently funded projects include environmental research and scholarships for rural and first-generation college students. A majority of its higher education grants are directed toward public and private colleges and universities in New England. Past education grantees include Colby College, the University of Vermont, the University of New Hampshire, Clark University and the University of Maine. At Princeton University, the fund established the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies. 

Grants for Environmental Conservation and Justice

The fund’s environmental grantmaking appears to focus on the preservation of natural resources and land. In New York, the fund has supported Scenic Hudson, an organization that works to protect the Hudson River and its surrounding lands, including farms and parks. Another past grantee, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust works along the entire coast of Maine to protect animal and plant wildlife and maintain accessibility to preserves and other public coastal areas. Other trusts that have received funding include the Hudson Highlands Land Trust and Peninsula Open Space Trust. The fund has also supported environmental education programs at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Grants for Arts and Culture

Arts and culture grantmaking often addresses visual arts, dance and historic preservation. In Massachusetts, the fund helped to establish the Shelby Cullom Davis Gallery at Plymouth Plantation. The gallery houses rotating art, history and archeology exhibits. Visual arts grantees include the Florida’s Ringling School of Art and Design and the Strawtown Art and Garden Studio in New York. The fund has also provided ongoing support to Jacob’s Pillow, a renowned summer dance festival and school located in the Berkshire Mountains. 

Grants for Public Health

Health is a newer area of grantmaking for the Shelby Cullom Davis Foundation and, unlike its other areas of funding, has focused on California. The fund has given to the Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center in Sunnyvale, California and the West County Health Centers in Guerneville. 

Other Grantmaking

While the Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund does not appear to support conservative causes through its grantmaking, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, houses the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy. 

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the fund gave $100,000 to a small business relief fund in Mount Desert, Maine via the town’s Summer Residents Association. 

Important Grant Details:

The Shelby Cullom Davis Fund’s grants range from $10,000 to over $10 million, but its average grant size is about $150,000. The fund gives away over $100 million in grants each year. Many large grants go to small organizations with which the Davis family maintains interest or connection. For information about its past grantmaking, see the fund’s recent tax filings

This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding or provide a direct avenue of communication. An address is provided below. 

PEOPLE:

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CONTACT: 

Shelby Cullom Davis Charitable Fund

c/o Foundation Source

501 Silverside Road, Suite 123

Wilmington, Delaware 19809