Our Mission
We invest in strategic organizations and exceptional leaders that seek to improve the rights, opportunities and well-being of others, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.
About Us
Sandler Foundation was formed in 1991 by Herb Sandler and Marion Sandler. We are a spend-down foundation in our final years.
We are guided by core American values of opportunity, liberty and justice, as well as traditional Jewish values such as Tzedek (pursuing justice), Tzedekah (taking care of people in need) and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world).
We are strictly nonpartisan and support charitable causes in the public interest. We support exceptional leaders and organizations in a broad range of areas, including the following:
- Health: We have been the nation’s largest private funder of innovative asthma research to help the estimated 25 million Americans who suffer from the disease, including more than 4 million children.
- Pocketbook Issues: We have supported efforts to create good jobs, make housing more affordable, and protect hard-working Americans from fraudulent and deceptive financial practices and products, saving families billions of dollars. We have also worked to ensure all Americans have the opportunity to contribute to, and benefit from, economic growth.
- Children’s Safety and Opportunity: We have supported efforts to improve the health, financial stability, and educational outcomes of America’s children, as well as protecting kids from the online harms of social media.
- Environment: We have funded efforts to preserve clean air and water, safeguard our oceans, protect treasured places, and create good-paying clean energy jobs.
- Science: We have funded neuroscience and brain cancer research, as well as breakthrough basic science research that encourages high-risk transformative ideas.
- American Democracy: We have supported independent journalism to expose those who abuse the public trust, civil liberties including freedom of speech, fair and independent courts, and free and fair elections.
These philanthropic efforts have improved the lives of millions of Americans.
Our Approach
We believe that transformative change requires strong leaders and well-managed organizations with significant capacity and the ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Accordingly, we focus on providing meaningful levels of general support to a limited number of outstanding organizations.
We have high standards for what we fund and conduct extensive due diligence to evaluate leaders and organizations. We are not motivated to fund solely by an organization’s mission; rather, a compelling mission needs to be combined with great leadership and the ability to execute and affect change. We provide long-term support to outstanding organizations that combine these attributes.
We view nonprofit leaders and organizations as the experts and agents of change. It is about them, not us. We are not micro-managers, but rather view our role as “macro-managers” focused on big picture issues like maintaining high standards of excellence, pursuing ambitious goals and sound strategies, and assembling a high-quality team that can execute and manage risk effectively.We look for opportunities to add value beyond just our funding and often work with grantees to catalyze their expansion and/or improved operating capacity so they can have greater reach and impact for the long-term.
We have a high tolerance for risk and look for opportunities for leverage. We have launched new organizations to fill the gaps when we could find outstanding leadership. We often issue challenge grants to encourage other donors to support organizations.
We strive for impact that makes a real and lasting difference in the lives of large numbers of people. We primarily fund nationally — not locally, regionally or internationally — and we support policy advocacy, not direct services. We are a spend-down foundation with a lean staff. We do not structure ourselves around program areas or spread funds among many groups in a field.
We have adopted Guiding Principles for Grants, summarizing our operating philosophy.
We do not review unsolicited proposals.
