The Packard Foundation: A family enterprise
“The most important question we have to deal with is a combination of population control and the control of our environment - how to utilize the world in as effective a way as we can for the future of mankind”. David Packard’s observation of the biggest challenges facing society 40 years ago appear to have resonance today, and it underpins the work and activities of the foundation that bears his name – the David & Lucille Packard Foundation. The focus of the foundation’s work today is around three primary areas: Conservation and science; population and reproductive growth; and children, families and communities.
David Packard’s contribution to the US technology sector as the co-founder of Hewlett Packard is daunting. He also served in public life, appointed as Deputy Secretary of Defence on entering office, a role in which he applied his business experience in implementing resource management change in the military, as well as establishing the Defense Systems Management College. It is reported that he had a focus on maximising both human creativity and potential, qualities that may continue to find expression in his philanthropic legacy. Organisational effectiveness is one of the areas that the Packard Foundation will fund today, especially as it relates to organisations engaged in the priority area of children, families and communities.
His philanthropic contribution to society and charitable activities match his contribution to business and public life. The scale of David Packard’s giving during and after his life is significant. He and his wife established their family foundation in 1964, and he left the bulk of his $4 billion estate to provide for its endowment. Today, it ranks in the top 10 of US family foundations, and is in the top 20 of American foundations by size of endowment.
From the beginning, the Foundation was a family affair, but it was Lucille Packard who immersed herself in the decision-making and direction of the organisation at the outset. Proposals were scrutinised by her before being shared around the family for review and approval.
Environmental conservation in general, and marine conservation in particular, was a lifelong concern for both David and Lucille Packard. Both their daughters studied marine biology and it is said that they triggered David’s interest in marine life. Perhaps, as a result, the most high-profile impact of Packard’s conservation giving was the establishment of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which attracts around 2 million visitors annually. It is considered on the world’s finest aquariums. In fact, one of his daughters – Julie Packard – remains executive director of the aquarium today.
The other significant contribution that the Packards made was to higher education and, in particular, Stanford University. David Packard was a Stanford graduate and, in the 1930s and 1940s, Lucille Packard worked at Stanford. As a family they settled in Palo Alto and HP’s headquarters remain in the town they share with Stanford. In 1986, David and Lucille Packard donated $40 million towards the building of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. A decade later, he and HP co-founder Bill Hewlett made a combined donation to Stanford of $77m.
The Packard’s commitment towards higher education – and particularly in California – is reflected in their Foundation’s university philanthropy today. The Foundation’s values align closely with the founders’ core interests and concerns and the organisation remains closely associated with the family. David and Lucille Packard’s three daughters sit on the board of the Foundation.
The David & Lucile Packard Foundation is a significant funder of universities. According to our analysis of its giving over the past five reported years, 2014-18, the Packard Foundation has consistently awarded around 15% of all funding annually to universities and higher education institutions. That amounts to over $220m over in the years 2014-18. And reflecting the founders’ association with the Golden State, Californian universities top the Packard Foundation giving table.
Between 2014-18, the University of California, Berkeley received the largest sum from the Foundation ($15.4m), followed by Stanford University ($14.4m) and University of California, San Francisco ($11.9m). They are joined by John Hopkins University, Harvard, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Foundation’s top 10 university recipients.
Funding of non-US universities is proportionately modest. When the Foundation funds universities, especially those outside the US, conservation and environmental programmes are often the reason. What we know from the Packard Foundation is that its marine conservation programme prioritises three areas – the Californian coastline, the Gulf of California and the Western Pacific. The Foundation reports that it has awarded over 2,000 grants to 148 organisations in the area of marine conservation which includes sustainable fisheries. It is this area of interest that appears to have a significant impact on the Foundation’s international university funding.
Our analysis of Packard Foundation university giving concluded that Australasian universities is the preferred region of its international higher education funding. The University of the South Pacific in Fiji is the second biggest university beneficiary receiving awards in 2014 and 2015 totalling $938k. Three Australian universities received between them around $500k, all benefitting from funding relating to conservation and science.
Asian universities – notably universities in China, Indonesia and Pakistan – were the third biggest regional beneficiaries. Again, in the case of three out of the four Asian universities that received funding, marine conversation and marine sustainability were the themes of the programme supported.
Some examples in Asia and Australasia of the Packard Foundation’s higher education funding include Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University which received $585,000 in the past five years for a comprehensive analysis on the importance of coastal wetlands for marine ecosystems, fisheries, and livelihoods in China. And the University of Technology, Sydney received $362,000 for assessing fisheries governance regarding the benefits tuna fisheries bring to Indonesian coastal communities.
In Europe, Stockholm University in Sweden received funding of $367,000 to operationalize the commitments of the Seafood Businesses for Ocean Stewardship initiative and fund follow-up actions.
But not all Packard Foundation funding to universities relates to maritime and ocean conservation. Unlike many large US foundations, the Packard Foundation does not appear to support higher education in Africa. However, there is one exception.
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) – a university which was long associated with the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa – is the single African beneficiary of Packard Foundation university giving. It is, in our view, heartening to see a major US foundation choosing to fund a lesser known South African university instead of opting to fund the extremely well-resourced institutions of the University of Cape Town and Wits University. And the purpose of the funding to UWC? Organisational effectiveness – a core value and concern of both the Foundation and its founder, David Packard.