Panta Rhea Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The California-based Panta Rhea Foundation’s current area of grantmaking is sustainable agriculture and food systems. It also provides capacity building support for its core grantees. Panta Rhea recently concluded its democracy, education and arts funding programs.
IP TAKE: Panta Rhea has recently refined its grantmaking priorities and will focus future grantmaking on sustainable agriculture and food systems in the U.S. It will continue to support its core grantees with capacity building, but has ended its other funding programs. California and Hawaii appear to be geographic areas of interest.
The Panta Rhea Foundation is not accessible and does not accept unsolicited proposals, but it does provide an email address for its grants administrator, Gerlie Collado. It also likes collaboration and giving on-going support to “core grantees,” which means this is a good long-term funder to know.
PROFILE: The Panta Rhea Foundation was established in 2001 by businessman and investor Hans Schoepflin and his oldest daughter Patricia Wefald. It is based in La Jolla, California. The name Panta Rhea refers to a quotation from Heraclitus meaning “all things flow,” which “honors the eternally interconnected possibility and promise of individual, familial and collective transformation.” In 2015, the foundation began transitioning to a non-family majority board, although Hans’s youngest daughter Lisl Shoepflin continues to serve as chair. The foundation is committed to “building a more just and sustainable world” by supporting “artists, journalists, teachers, students, activists, organizers and visionaries who see, create and make meaning of our world and our interdependent futures.” Its current program areas are Food & Democracy and Resilience & Renewal, which provides ongoing support to the foundation’s core grantees.
The foundation’s other funding initiatives, Dignity, Freedom & Solidarity and Deeper Learning & Creativity, concluded grantmaking in 2020.
Grants for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems
The Panta Rhea Foundation supports sustainable agriculture and food systems via its Food & Democracy funding area. The program was established in 2016 to support “leaders and organizations around the U.S. and the world fighting for food systems that foster thriving communities, promote dignity and racial equity, and regenerate natural resources. Much of the foundation’s work in this area has been collaborative: Panta Rhea works with the Food and Farm Communications Fund, the Agroecology Fund and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders Network. Recent areas of interest include food generation and purchasing, food-related climate solutions, the reduction of consumption of sugary drinks and the states of Hawaii and California. Past grantees include the Animal Agriculture Reform Collaborative, the California Climate and Agriculture Network, the Center for Good Food Purchasing, Hawai’i Alliance for Progressive Action and the Pesticide Action Network.
Important Grant Details:
The Panta Rhea Foundation is in the process of changing its grantmaking strategies and priorities, having ended two of its main programs in 2020. In a recent year, the foundation gave away about $400,000, with most grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,00. This funder tends to support smaller organizations that demonstrate innovative approaches to social, food and environmental justice. For additional information about past grantees, see the foundation’s individual program pages or its recent tax filings.
This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals for funding. Grants administrator Gerlie Collado can be reached by email, and general inquiries may be directed to the foundation’s staff via email or telephone at (626) 866-9964.
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