OVERVIEW: The Tiger Baron Foundation makes grants for arts and culture, the environment, education and public health, placing a strong emphasis on New York City.
IP TAKE: More than half of Tiger Baron’s grants go to arts and culture organizations in New York City, where its priorities include performing arts and museums. The foundation has also recently given to several large, national environmental organizations. To a lesser extent, it supports education and health.
This is not an accessible or responsive foundation, which does not maintain a website, restricting information on grant strategies and priorities. Prospective grantees may reach out to this funder using the contact information provided below.
PROFILE: Founded in 2002, the Tiger Baron Foundation is steered by siblings Alex and Sharon Lyu Volckhausen. Their late father, Bill Volckhausen, was a banker, lawyer and law professor. Alex Volckhausen attended Stuyvesant High School and graduated from Princeton University with an A.B. from the School of Architecture in 1993. He’s a freelance stage manager, having worked for places like Fox Broadcasting. Sharon Lyu Volckhausen graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in history in 1991, received her masters in modern history from Oxford University, and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. She was a litigation associate at Simpson Thacher and Bartlett, and served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of NY. She currently teaches law.
The foundation does not maintain a website, limiting information available on its grantmaking practices. According to tax filings, Tiger Baron supports arts and cultural institutions, the environment, education and health, with more than half of its grants directed toward organizations in New York City. Other areas of geographic priority include New Jersey, Vermont, Massachusetts and California.
Grants for New York, Arts and Culture
Arts and culture are Tiger Baron’s largest areas of giving, and the foundation has demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting the performing arts and a broad range of museums. New York City performing arts grantees include the New York Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Playwrights Horizons, the New York City Ballet and Second Stage Theater, Inc. New York City museums that have received funding from Tiger Baron include the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the New York Transit Museum. Outside of the New York area, the foundation has supported Massachusetts’s Williamstown Theatre, the North Carolina Stage Company and Montana’s Center for Music by People with Disabilities. While arts grants prioritize New York City, related grants fund nationally.
Grants for Environmental Conservation and Justice
Matriarch Grace Lyu-Volckhausen sits on the board of Prospect Park Alliance, which the family supports. She is passionate about access to green space including the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sharon, meanwhile, is involved with Trust for Public Land.
The Tiger Baron Foundation appears to have an emerging interest in the environment, having made recent grants to national organizations including EarthJustice, the Trust for Public Land, Climate Central and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The foundation has also given to some smaller conservation organizations in New York City. Recent grantees include the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, the Hudson River Park Friends and the Central Park Conservancy.
Grants for Education
Alex and Sharon support their mutual alma mater Princeton University. Their late father, Bill, a banker, lawyer, and law professor, also graduated from Princeton. Education is not a priority area, but past grantees include children’s educational programs run by New York City’s Third Street Music School Settlement and the Brooklyn Public Library.
Grants for Public Health
The Tiger Baron Foundation has made only a few grants to public health organizations in recent years. Past grantees include West Virginia’s Milan Puskar Health Right, Brooklyn’s Sunset Park Health Council, Los Angeles’s Village Health Foundation and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The foundation has also demonstrated an interest in AIDS/HIV treatment and prevention and has given to both Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS.
Important Grant Details:
The Tiger Baron Foundation has made about $6 million in grants a year in recent years. Its grants range from $2,000 to about $500,000, with an average grant size of $10,000. More than half of this funder’s grants support arts and culture organizations in New York City. Its environmental grants tend to support large, national organizations. For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Tiger Baron Foundation does not operate a website and does not appear to accept unsolicited proposals for funding. An address and phone number are provided below.
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CONTACT:
Tiger Baron Foundation
233 Broadway, Suite 2200
New York, NY 10279
(212) 273-3719