A New York-based private family foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) supports grantmaking, mission-aligned investing, and convenings to advance social change worldwide.
Established in 1940 by five sons of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. — John 3rd, Nelson, Winthrop, Laurance, and David — as a vehicle to coordinate their philanthropic efforts, the RBF received two substantial gifts from their father in 1951 and from his estate in 1960 that formed its original endowment. In 1999, a merger with the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation increased the Fund’s assets by approximately one-third, and in 2018 a $250 million bequest from the estate of co-founder David Rockefeller raised the endowment to over $1 billion. Stephen B. Heintz has served as president and CEO since February 2001, the seventh president in the Fund’s history.
The RBF organizes grantmaking across seven programs — three thematic (Democratic Practice, Sustainable Development, Peacebuilding), three Pivotal Place (China, Western Balkans, Central America), and the Culpeper Arts & Culture program for New York City — deploying assets to help civil society partners strengthen coalitions, generate new ideas, and advance systems change. Program staff actively identify aligned organizations; fewer than one percent of unsolicited applications result in funding, and non-U.S. organizations must satisfy an equivalency determination through NGOsource. The Fund uses an online grants portal, and applicants should review program guidelines and recent grants before submitting.
Over more than 80 years the RBF has supported civil society across democratic governance, peacebuilding, sustainability, and the arts, awarding $61,424,824 in grants in 2024; its 2014 fossil fuel divestment commitment — reducing portfolio exposure to an estimated 0.2% by September 30, 2025 — established the Fund as an early leader in mission-aligned investing, with a 2025 independent review finding the strategy had not compromised financial returns.
The RBF maintains formal shared services arrangements with the Rockefeller Archive Center, Rockefeller Family Fund, Asian Cultural Council, and David Rockefeller Fund, and operates the Pocantico Historic Area under a 1991 agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with Historic Hudson Valley conducting public visitation and Greenrock Corporation managing property maintenance. The Fund is a member of the Foundations Platform F20 and has engaged NGOsource for non-U.S. applicant equivalency determinations; in 2024 it approved $5,500,000 in grants to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors across three projects.
The RBF is a 501(c)(3) private foundation incorporated under New York State law, subject to a federal excise tax on net investment income at 1.39%, and its endowment of $1,375,992,519 at December 31, 2024 comprises board-designated funds of $1,039,335,868, donor-restricted purpose funds of $326,508,174 (including the David Rockefeller Global Development Fund with net assets of $303,601,283), and a permanent endowment of $10,148,477. The investment portfolio of $1,363,017,370 is managed by an outsourced chief investment officer under a policy requiring at least 30% in vehicles with lockups of 12 months or less; the Fund registered a program office in Beijing in November 2017 and evaluates grantmaking impact through annual evidence-of-progress reviews, periodic program reviews, and external impact assessments.