The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder

William Redington Hewlett William Redington Hewlett ( ; May 20, 1913 – January 12, 2001) was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). Early life and education Hewlett was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his ...

and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation awards grants to a variety of

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and progressive causes. With assets of approximately $14 billion, Hewlett is one of the wealthiest grant makers in the United States. The Foundation has grantmaking programs in education, the environment, global development and population, the performing arts, and philanthropy. The Hewlett Foundation is based in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

History

Bill and Flora Hewlett consolidated their philanthropic activity into the William R. Hewlett Foundation, which Bill, aged 53, founded in 1966 in their

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, home. Founding board members were Bill, Flora, and the couple's oldest son, Walter Hewlett. The years 1966-1972 were referred to as "the living room years". Flora Hewlett served as a board member and Bill Hewlett was an active part of the foundation until his death. Bill Hewlett sought to fund established organizations operating in his fields of interest. In its first ten years, the foundation awarded close to $15.3 million to organizations involved in education, population, performing arts, environment, health, and social services. In 1972, the foundation's board of directors was expanded with the addition of William A. Hewlett and James S. Hewlett. In 1974, the foundation hired its first executive director, John May, who was also the executive of the San Francisco Foundation. Following Flora Hewlett's death in 1977, and in her memory, the foundation's name was changed to "The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation". Shortly after, the foundation appointed former

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

Chancellor Roger W. Heyns as president, with Bill Hewlett becoming the board chair. The board was expanded with the addition of Eleanor Hewlett Gilmon and Mary Hewlett Jaffe, daughters of Bill and Flora. Since 1981, the majority of the foundation's board has been composed of non-family members. The foundation has received credit for its work in the areas of

conflict resolution Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict and retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information abo ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

environmental protection Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...

, performing arts, and as a supporter of organizations in the Bay Area. In 1993, with the appointment of former

President

David P. Gardner David Pierpont Gardner (born March 24, 1933) was the 15th president of the University of California and was also the president of the University of Utah. Biography Gardner was born in Berkeley, California, to Reed S. Gardner and Margaret Pierpont ...

, who succeeded Roger Heyns who retired after 15 years, the foundation's focus widened. The foundation expanded its funding of environmental causes, formerly restricted to California, to all over the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The foundation also began focusing on K-12 education reforms. Gardner introduced a new program supporting relations between the US and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

. Gardner served for six years. During Gardner's tenure, the foundation introduced the limitation of terms served as program officers with terms expiring after six years, followed by an extension of three years with board approval. In 2005, this term limit was extended to eight years. In January 2000,

Paul Brest Paul Brest (born 1940) is an American scholar of constitutional law, a former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and a former dean of Stanford Law School. He is an influential theorist on the role of non-profit organizations i ...

, the former dean of

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

, was appointed as the new president of the foundation. He served for 12 years. On January 12, 2001, Bill Hewlett, aged 87 years, died from heart failure. During Brest's time as president, the foundation started to focus on awarding grants for efforts curbing

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and the expansion of the use of

open educational resources Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" describes publicly accessible materials and ...

. During this time, the foundation also relocated to

Larry Kramer Laurence David Kramer (June 25, 1935May 27, 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and gay rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to Lo ...

, also a former dean of Stanford Law School, has been serving as the foundation's president since 2012. He introduced new initiatives addressing political polarization as well as

cybersecurity Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

. Stephen C. Neal, who had been serving as a board member since 2006, was appointed as and succeeded Walter Hewlett as board chair.

Foundation assets and endowment

During its first ten years, the foundation awarded grants of approximately $15.3 million. The foundation's endowment kept growing considerably, with Flora Hewlett's estate bolstering it to more than $300 million in 1981 and the foundation's assets reaching more than $800 million by the 1990s, an increase of more than 30 times. Between 1993 and 1999, under the leadership of David P. Gardner, the foundation's

asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can ...

s grew to more than $2 billion and grants increased from $35 million in 1993 to $84 million in 1998. In 2000, the foundation's assets had grown to $3.93 billion. This increased further with the transfer of Bill Hewlett's estate bringing the assets up to $8.52 billion and catapulting the foundation into the fifth place of

private foundations A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization not relying on broad public support and generally claiming to serve humanitarian purposes. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion i ...

in America. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

, the Hewlett Foundation provided USD 123.3 million for development in 2019, all in the form of grants.

Programs and grants

Hewlett Foundation office building, exterior

Hewlett Foundation office building, interior

Education

In 2001, the foundation gave $400 million to Stanford University for humanities, sciences, and undergraduate education. At the time, the gift was the largest on record to a university. In 2007, the Hewlett Foundation made a $113 million donation to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

to create 100 new endowed professorships and provide financial help for graduate students. In May 2010, the Hewlett Foundation announced its strategy of " Deeper Learning", which is a set of student educational outcomes including acquisition of robust core academic content, higher-order thinking skills, and learning dispositions. Hewlett and the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

helped to develop the field of

OpenCourseWare OpenCourseWare (OCW) are course lessons created at universities and published for free via the Internet. OCW projects first appeared in the late 1990s, and after gaining traction in Europe and then the United States have become a worldwide means ...

. Hewlett seeded the Creative Commons project with $1 million.

Climate

In 2008, the foundation awarded the Climate Works Foundation approximately $460,800,000. Hewlett funded restoration of the Bay Area Salt Ponds and conservation of the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada. Hewlett's Environment Program makes grants to support conservation in the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

West, reduce

and conventional

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

resulting from the use of fossil fuels, and promote

efforts in California. The Hewlett Foundation opposes coal and natural gas development. However, the Hewlett Foundation is a donor to the Breakthrough Institute,

Journalism

Hewlett collaborated with the

Center for Investigative Reporting The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) is a nonprofit news organization based in Emeryville, California. It was founded in 1977 as the nation’s first nonprofit investigative journalism organization, and has since grown into a multi-plat ...

to create California Watch, an investigative reporting project focused on California news.

Reproductive health

The Hewlett Foundation make grants in developing countries and in the United States to provide and advocate for family planning and

reproductive health Sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a field of research, healthcare, and social activism that explores the health of an individual's reproductive system and sexual wellbeing during all stages of their life. The term can also be further de ...

services. The Hewlett Foundation has given major financial support to Planned Parenthood and the

International Planned Parenthood Federation The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a global non-governmental organisation with the broad aims of promoting sexual and reproductive health, and advocating the right of individuals to make their own choices in family ...

International grants tables

The following table lists the top sectors to which the Hewlett Foundation has committed funding within its Global Development and Population Program. Data are taken from the International Aid Transparency Initiative activities publication, and is expected to cover 21% of the foundation's overall grantmaking; this does not include international grantmaking in Environment, Education, and other program areas, although those total a significant proportion of grants. The Foundation's Climate Initiative, in particular, is oriented toward international as well as U.S.-focused work. The sector names use the DAC 3 Digit Sector names. The following table lists the all-time top 30 grantees, as recorded in the IATI activities publication.

Board

Members of the board

* Stephen C. Neal, Chairman * Larry D. Kramer, President * Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar * Alecia A. DeCoudreaux *

Persis Drell Persis S. Drell is an American physicist best known for her expertise in the field of particle physics. She was the director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory from 2007 to 2012. She was dean of the Stanford University School of Engin ...

* Nathalie Farman-Farma * Eric Gimon * Billy Hewlett * Patricia House * Koh Boon Hwee * James Manyika * Rakesh Rajani

Officers of the board

* Larry D. Kramer, President * Ana Marshall, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer * Suresh Bhat, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer * Elizabeth Peters, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Advisor to the Investment Committee

* Scott Simon * Andrew Spokes * John Moehling

Assets

As of 2018 the Hewlett Foundation had total assets of $9,761,950,634.

Funding details

Funding details as of 2018:

References

External links

*
Hewlett Foundation profile at the Chronicle of Social Change
{{Authority control Conservation and environmental foundations in the United States Organizations established in 1966 Menlo Park, California