Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund was established in 1940 by the five sons of John D. Rockefeller Jr. The five Rockefeller brothers served as the Fund's first five trustees. In 1951, the Fund grew substantially when it received a $58 million endowment from John D. Rockefeller Jr. Initially, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund pursued largely philanthropic interests. Laurance continued his father John D. Rockefeller II's interest in nature conservation, so that the fund's money expanded the family's Wyoming land trusts, which formed the basis of the Grand Teton National Park. Nelson continued his mother Abby Aldrich Rockefeller's interest in contemporary art, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund became one of the largest supporters of the Museum of Modern Art. John D. Rockefeller was one of the pioneers of population policy, and the fund was one of the most important supporters of the Population Council. In 1999, the Fund merged with the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation. On September 30, 2014, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced that it planned to divest its assets from fossil fuels. On disinvesting from fossil fuels, the president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stephen Heintz, said: "We see this as both a moral imperative and an economic opportunity". Two years later, the Rockefeller Family Fund— a distinct, independent institution, as is the Rockefeller Brothers Fund—announced its pending divestment from fossil fuels, on March 23, 2016. ==Special Studies Project==

From 1956 to 1960, the Fund financed a study conceived by its then president, Nelson Rockefeller, to analyze the challenges facing the United States. Henry Kissinger was recruited to direct the project. Seven panels were constituted that looked at issues including military strategy, foreign policy, international economic strategy, governmental reorganization, and the nuclear arms race. The military subpanel's report was rush-released about two months after the USSR launched Sputnik in October 1957. Rockefeller urged the Republican Party to adopt the finding of the Special Studies Project as its platform. The findings of the project formed the framework of Nelson Rockefeller's 1960 presidential election platform. The project was published in its entirety in 1961 as Prospect for America: The Rockefeller Panel Reports. The archival study papers are stored in the Rockefeller Archive Center at the family estate. == Funding of anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian organizations ==

Since 2011 the RBF has donated significant funds to support anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian organizations and protests. It has become the most important source of funding for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) political campaign. Since 2013, RBF has donated at least $880,000 to groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Zochrot, and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which support BDS. Stephen B. Heintz, wrote in an email that such grants were needed to “end the fifty-year long occupation in order to bring justice, dignity, and freedom to all Israelis and Palestinians.” Since 2018, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has donated more than $3.4 million to groups such as Defense for Children International-Palestine, (DCI-P) which was designated a terrorist organization by the Israeli government in October 2021 for acting as an extension of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) with established ties to leading PFLP members. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has also donated $490,000 to Jewish Voice for Peace since 2019, an anti-Israel advocacy group that claimed the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 was due to “75 years of Israeli occupation and apartheid.” Roughly $2.2 million has been donated by the Fund towards several other organizations that have either justifying Hamas or blaming Israel for the terrorist attacks. == Quincy Institute ==

In 2023, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gave $100,000 to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a non-interventionist foreign policy think tank. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Quincy Institute has ties to the pro-Islamic Republic of Iran lobbying group National Iranian American Council (NIAC) through its former president Trita Parsi, who works as the Quincy Institute’s executive vice president and is backed by Francis Najafi, who is a donor to both groups and to numerous anti-Israel groups. ==Presidents==

• Nelson Rockefeller (1956–1958) • Laurance Rockefeller (1958–1968) • Dana S. Creel (1968–1975) • William M. Dietel (1975–1987) • Colin G. Campbell (1987–2000) • Stephen B. Heintz (since 2001) ==Further reading==