Grove Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Grove Foundation supports civic engagement, racial equity, human rights, education, immigrants and refugees, women and girls, youth development, food security and an emphasis on California.
IP TAKE: Across funding areas, the Grove Foundation conducts grantmaking through a racial equity lens based on human rights, which addresses “those living at the intersection of racism, sexism, transphobia, disability, xenophobia, and classism, to name a few.” In this vein, Grove also recalibrated its investment approach to better fit with its social justice approach. Grantees range from large national and international organizations to much smaller, community-oriented groups, and its geographic area of priority appears to be California.
This funder has become more transparent as the organization has grown under the leadership of the Grove’s daughter Karen. This funder even posts a grantee perception report online based on an outside survey conducted by the Center for Effective Philanthropy in 2021. Grantees found Grove to be highly communicative and supportive, but clarification around grantmaking was requested. Since the report, Grove has worked toward meeting the needs of its grantees through trust-based philanthropy, providing largely unrestricted grants for several years — more than typical funders. It also offers matching grants.
While the foundation is transparent and approachable, it does not support unsolicited applications, preferring a proactive approach to grantmaking in order to better identify mission-aligned grantees. Note that this is a spend-down funder that is required to spend all assets within 25 years of the deaths of both founders, Andy and Eva. Andy passed away in 2016, while Eva passed away in 2023.
PROFILE: Based in Los Altos, California, the Grove Foundation was established in 1986 by the late Andrew “Andy” Grove, a former chair and CEO of the Intel Corporation, and Eva Grove. The couple, both Jewish, fled under the Nazi occupation of Europe during World War II. Andy Grove was born in Hungary, where he and his mother took on false identities and hid with friends. In 1956, they fled the Hungarian Revolution and came to the U.S., where he studied at the City College of New York and pursued his doctorate at U.C. Berkeley. He worked briefly at Fairchild Semiconductor, but became involved in the establishment of Intel from its earliest days, eventually becoming the company’s chair and CEO. Eva fled Austria as a child and settled in Bolivia until she was 18, when her family emigrated to New York CityEva where she eventually earned her master’s in social work from Columbia University and served in many volunteer and leadership capacities.
The Grove Foundation is also affiliated with the Grove Action Fund, a low-key separate entity established in 2018, which has a “similar mission through different means” focused on social welfare that “provides financial support for organizations that are involved in advocacy and lobbying work, consistent with our mission. The Action Fund may also engage in direct advocacy for change in the legislative and political arenas and adds a new toolset to our work.”
The Grove Foundation, which is currently led by Grove’s daughter Karen, envisions a “world in which all people have the resources, respect and sense of belonging to live and contribute fully as themselves, in safety, and with joy.”
Conducted through a racial equity lens officially since 2017, grantmaking is committed to “racial justice (borrowing their understanding from Race Forward), which to us means the systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all” across all grantmaking areas. The foundation conducts grantmaking for Civic Engagement, Black Led Power Building, Immigrants, Reproductive Health, Rights & Justice, and Safety Net.
Grants for Racial Equity and BIPOCs
Through the Black Led Power Building program, which began in response to the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the Grove Foundation initiated and led efforts to provide general operating support to BLPB groups. This program offers “five years of funding for Black-led organizations doing advocacy work that focuses specifically on Black people, with an emphasis on civic engagement and liberation.” This U.S.-based initiative focuses on the South, including the states of Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama.
Note that all of the Grove Foundation’s grantmaking, as outlined above in this profile, occurs through a racial equity lens, especially since 2017 when the foundation saw a break down in social justice across the U.S.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Grove Foundation makes grants for civic engagement and democracy through a dedicated Civic Engagement program, as well as for Black-led power building, focused on civic engagement and liberation, and through the Safety-Net program, which focuses efforts on work at the local level in San Mateo County.
The Civic Engagement program focuses on “supporting progressive organizations” that share the foundation’s values and that are “working to engage historically underrepresented populations (people of color, youth and low-income people) in the civic processes” that ensure these communities can have a direct say in the forces that effect their lives. This program is based on the work of Grove’s previous Environmental Program, which has been phased out.
Grants for Health and Women
The Grove Foundation conducts health grantmaking through its Reproductive Health, Justice & Rights program, which works toward a “future in which all people have the education, resources, and power to determine their sexual and reproductive lives.”
Grove believes this work requires inclusive, accurate and nonjudgemental reproductive health education; equitable access to unprejudiced health care; and the “removal of other barriers to reproductive decision-making.”
This program is strictly focused on the U.S. and prioritizes local, regional and state-based organizations.
Health has been the Grove Foundation’s largest area of giving in recent years, but has become more laser-focused on reproductive health.
Reproductive health grantmaking has funded multiple chapters of Planned Parenthood and other women’s health organizations around the U.S. on a regular basis. Reproductive health grantees also include the Reproductive Health Investors Alliance, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the Reproductive Health Access Project and Funders for Reproductive Health Equity.
Past general health grantees include California’s Cardea Services, the Ravenswood Family Health Center, the Asian American Health Coalition and Mississippi First. Grove himself suffered from Parkinson’s disease, and for the past several years, the foundation has donated over $2 million annually to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Grants for Human Rights, Immigrants and Refugees
The Grove Foundation’s dedicated Immigration program works to protect and advance immigrant rights. Related grantmaking occurs at the local, regional and national levels with an emphasis on advocacy and policy. The foundation also offers grants for refugees and asylum seekers through this program. Grantmaking specifically invests in:
“Low-income immigrants with specific emphasis on citizenship, removal defense, DACA, and asylum/refugees, including detention issues.”
Policy Advocacy that “includes immigrant organizing, and coalition building.”
National Impact Litigation that “seeks to advance and protect immigrant rights.”
Funding generally goes to U.S. organizations that work in developing countries. Recent grantees include the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, the Social Good Fund, One Justice, the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies and the International Institute of the Bay Area. Recent grantmaking focused on the rights of immigrants and refugees includes San Francisco’s Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Immigration Law Center, Arizona’s Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights Project and the Tahirih Justice Center of Virginia.
The Grove Foundation, in accordance with its founder’s experience of immigration and refugee status, is committed to protecting the rights of immigrants and refugees. Eva Kastan Grove, a socialworker, also served as board member of Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC).
Grants for Housing, Community Development and Food Security
Through the Safety Net program, the Grove Foundation invests in a variety of California’s needs, most often centered around San Mateo County. This work largely centers on youth development, food security, local civic engagement and a handful of other local causes. The Grove Foundation used to conduct more built out funding for education, which it still pursues, but at a smaller level.
The Grove Foundation funds here have involved in creating and maintaining affordable housing predominantly in California. The foundation doesn’t name giving strategies or particular approaches here, preferring to keep an open mind. Past grantees include the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, LifeMoves of Menlo Park, Oakland’s Prospera Community Development Corporation.
Important Grant Details:
The Grove Foundation has an annual grantmaking budget ranging from $15 to $20 million. Grant amounts tend to range from $50,000 to $147,500, but can go up to about $1 million.
The Grove Foundation offers unrestricted grants to roughly 70% of grantees. Grants tend to occur over an average of two years. More than 70% of grantees receive consistent funding.
Median organizational budget hovers around $1.9 million.
California is a clear geographic priority for this funder, and many small grassroots organizations receive support over the years.
The Grove Foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for funding or maintain a direct avenue for getting in touch. A mailing address and telephone number are provided below.
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