FAQ

The Foundation’s grantmaking programs reflect a focus on the issues our founders David and Lucile Packard cared about most: improving the lives of children, enabling the creative pursuit of science, advancing reproductive health, and restoring the earth’s natural systems. Learn more about what we fund.

The Packard Foundation makes grants in a wide variety of regions around the globe, depending on the program area:

Conservation and Science: Worldwide

Reproductive Health: Worldwide, with area of focus in the United States, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa

Children, Families, and Communities: California and nationally

Local Grantmaking: San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito counties in California; and Pueblo, Colorado

Organizational Effectiveness: Worldwide

Program-Related Investments: Worldwide

Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering: United States

We are committed to being good financial stewards and to evaluating the effectiveness of our grantmaking. We have no single system of evaluation. Our approach for evaluating a specific grant or initiative is determined by the needs of priority audiences and the objectives of the program itself. Learn more about our evaluation principles

As a family foundation, our grantmaking programs reflect a focus on the issues our founders cared about most: improving the lives of children, enabling the creative pursuit of science, advancing reproductive health, and restoring the earth’s natural systems.  Each program area has dedicated staff with deep experience in grantmaking, who develop subprogram strategies within the broader areas with specific objectives and time horizons.  Our Board and senior leadership work in concert to ensure that we invest in areas that are consistent with our values and our founders’ interests.

The secret of David and Lucile’s success in business guides our approach to philanthropy: We invest in strong leaders and organizations, collaborate with them to identify the most effective solutions, and give them the freedom and support they need to take risks on approaches that have the greatest potential to create lasting change.

Our specific selection process for awarding grants varies by program, so it is best to first explore our website for more information about our programs. Not all programs accept unsolicited proposals, so please read each program’s “How to Get Support” section carefully.

Typically, no. Before applying, please read each program’s “How to Get Support” section and review its recent grantees to ensure that your organization applying to the most relevant program. We may forward applications to other programs if we feel the fit is particularly strong.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was a personal gift to the community by David and Lucile Packard.  They gave an estimated $55 million to help found the institution, which opened its doors in 1984.  Two of the Packard’s daughters have also been instrumental in founding and operating the Aquarium.  Nancy Burnett, who conducted her graduate work in marine biology at Stanford University, helped inspire its establishment, and Julie Packard, who majored in marine algae studies at U.C. Santa Cruz, currently serves as its Executive Director.

The Aquarium is a nonprofit organization funded by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation, and while it operates as a completely separate organization, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation occasionally provides funding for various projects.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) was founded by David Packard in 1987 to create a world-class center for advanced research and education in ocean science and technology. Today, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation provides 75 percent of MBARI’s operating budget with some overlap on governance procedures, like annual audits.

In 1986, David and Lucile Packard donated $40 million for the construction of a new facility to house the children’s hospital at Stanford University. The facility was ultimately named in memory of Mrs. Lucile Salter Packard, who was heavily involved in the design of the hospital and passed away before the hospital opened. Significant funding to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital continues to be provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Though we honor the legacy of our shared namesake, there is no formal relationship between the two foundations. The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health is an independent public charity and was named for Mrs. Lucile Salter Packard in honor of her lifelong commitment to the well-being of children.

The Packard Humanities Institute operates independently of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Institute was established by David W. Packard, the son of David and Lucile Packard in 1987 to create tools for basic research in the humanities and to foster public interest in history, literature, and music.

The Foundation is deeply committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions because climate change has the potential to undermine everything we care about as an organization. Through 2020, the Foundation will have awarded or committed nearly $1 billion in grants to reduce carbon emissions, one of our greatest program commitments in our 50-year history. In partnership with other funders, we have invested in the ClimateWorks Foundation and their network of hundreds of non-profit organizations worldwide. Together, we are focused on proven and emerging mitigation strategies that will make the biggest difference, including sustainable land use practices, speeding the transition to clean energy, and exploring new innovations and breakthrough approaches such as carbon capture and sequestration.

More information about our climate mitigation strategy can be found here.

The Packard Foundation has dedicated $180 million of our endowment for mission investments, including loan and equity investments, to advance our programmatic goals. Because of the urgency to slow climate change, we are working aggressively to use mission investments to spur innovations that push further and faster toward a clean energy economy. This is a central part of our approach. To date, we have invested more than $40 million to support innovative sustainable forestry models in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the creation of a global biofuels certification system, and the development of protocols for carbon mitigation projects. Learn more about our approach to mission investing.

We manage our endowment to exist in perpetuity with the goal to provide maximum support to our grantees engaged in critical work. We do this by partnering with the best investment managers globally. Each new partnership we enter into is approved by the Board of Trustees Investment Committee in alignment with our Socially Responsible Investment Principles and Guidelines.

The Foundation is committed to protecting and restoring the earth’s natural resources. This includes a commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions around the world, and in our own backyard. In 2012, the Foundation opened new headquarters, a 49,000 square foot LEED Platinum, net zero energy building. This building is a physical manifestation of our long-term commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow climate change. More information about our green headquarters is provided in the FAQ section and in a case study, “Sustainability in Practice: Building and Running 343 Second Street.”

For nearly 50 years, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has supported organizations and leaders working to protect and restore the ecosystems for a world where all families can plan for their children, and all children reach their potential. The new building is a physical manifestation of our long-term commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions around the world and aligns us even more closely with the important work our grantees do every day.

Our most important goal for the building was to create a comfortable and healthful space for our employees to work collaboratively. And we also wanted to support a vital downtown in the Los Altos community which has been home to the Foundation since our beginning. With the help of our project managers, architects and builder, we were able to show that it is possible, with existing technologies, to implement an environmentally-friendly design that is also comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.  As a way to document our journey, the Foundation commissioned a case study, “Sustainability in Practice: Building and Running 343 Second Street.”  We hope that sharing what we learned in designing, constructing and operating our high-tech, green headquarters will inspire others to join us in building the possibility of a better future.

Yes, the building was certified as LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council in October 2012, achieving 94 points out of 110 total possible. In September 2013, after its first full year of operation, the building was granted Net Zero Energy Building certification by the International Living Future Institute. At 49,000 square feet, the Foundation’s headquarters is currently the largest Net Zero Energy Certified building in the world.

Presently, we have no plans to add a grantmaking strategy related to green buildings. We have many grantees and partners that drive our environmental work at the ecosystem, city, and family levels, and the Foundation will continue to invest in these types of projects. At the same time, we believe our new building brings us into closer alignment with the values of our founders and our mission to restore and protect the environment.

Foundation staff moved in on July 9, 2012.

The overall project was managed by Rhodes/Dahl, based in Charleston, South Carolina, that previously served as the owner representative for the design and construction of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The lead architect for this project was EHDD Architecture, a nationally recognized San Francisco-based firm and a leader in the design and construction of sustainable buildings. The firm responsible for construction of the site was DPR Construction. Integral Group took the lead on all of the mechanical systems. If you are interested in learning more about the Foundation’s process for planning, designing and operating the building, please download the case study, “Sustainability in Practice:  Building and Running 343 Second Street.”

The landscaping was designed by Joni L. Janecki & Associates, Inc. (JLJA)  Our goals were to create a landscape that is beautiful, water-efficient, cares for local ecosystems and integrates with the existing Los Altos landscaping. JLJA created a landscape that is made up of 90% California native plantings in order to eliminate pesticides needed by foreign plants. The native plantings provide familiar food and shelter for local birds and insects and attract native pollinators.  Rain gardens and permeable paving are used throughout in order to reduce runoff and filter pollutants. To learn more about the landscaping, please view the slide show.

Among builders and developers, a common term is “replicable warm shell” (variants include “vanilla shell”, “cold shell” or even “warm shell”). In our case, the costs of replicable shell are $23.5 million ($477 per sq. ft.) and include such things as the roof, walls, windows, heating, cooling, plumbing, elevator, solar panels, etc. We expect that this replicable shell would attain net zero energy and LEED certification.

Added to this replicable shell are a variety of tenant improvements, including Packard-specific external and internal finishes, as well as site-specific preparations (e.g., rain gardens along Second Street to help capture storm water runoff), and deconstruction activities (e.g., recycling approximately 95 percent of the materials from the previous buildings). Taken together, these building construction costs total $37.2 million ($756 per sq. ft.), an approximate estimate of how much it could cost for a builder to re-create our facility in a similarly-situated location.

343 Second Street was designed as a facility for Foundation offices and staff, It was not designed to serve as a conference venue. We generally do not allow the use of 343 Second Street for events that predominantly benefit third parties. Events we host must substantially relate to Packard Foundation business and be sponsored by Packard Foundation programs or departments.

However, in accordance with Mr. Packard’s wishes, Taaffe House, the former Packard family home, was remodeled for use as a meeting and conference facility. It serves as the Foundation’s primary conference center for use by staff, grantees, and select community groups. To inquire about the use of Taaffe House, please email taaffe@packard.org.

A net zero energy building produces as much or more energy than it consumes on an annual basis. A building the size of 343 Second Street, at approximately 50,000 square feet, typically uses around 725 MWh/yr (megawatt hours per year). During the first year of operation, ending in July 2013, the building’s 915 photovoltaic solar panels produced 418 hours of electricity, while consuming only 351 MWh and returning 67 MWh to the utility electric grid.  In order to achieve this, the Foundation’s staff  reduced our plug loads and lighting each by 30 percent through energy efficient equipment and occupancy sensors and reduced our HVAC using a chilled beam system.

To carefully manage our electricity consumption and the comfort of employees, the building is equipped with nearly 15,000 monitoring and control points. The building automation system allows our building engineer to diagnose problems and to monitor and control everything from interior and exterior blinds, to plug loads, lighting, the heating and ventilation system and electric vehicle charging stations. The building engineer also has the ability to monitor water usage and rainwater recapture.

Yes, there is a list of our key vendors and materials. For a more complete list of products, vendors and their green attributes, please contact Julie Wrighton at DPR Construction juliew@dpr.com.

Here is a list of plants and trees that were planted on the 343 Second Street property and surrounding visitor and employee parking lots. Ninety percent of the plants are native to California and the local area and were also sourced within 500 miles. The live oak tree in front of the building was grown from an acorn in Clear Lake, California and is now 25 years old. Planted around the property, in the green street landscaping, is the western columbine, which was one of Lucile Packard’s favorite flowers.

Our use of native plants reduces pollution directly by providing oxygen and lowering the amount of local carbon dioxide; provides familiar food and shelter to local wildlife; and attracts native pollinators. Native plants do not require the excessive amount of water and toxic chemicals needed to grow non-native species.

To estimate what it was going to take for our 49,000 sq. ft. building to reach net zero energy, we compiled ten years of weather data coupled with statistics on the amount of energy we were expected to produce from our solar panels, as well as the energy graph consumption for a typical building this size. Energy consumption was calculated by monitoring and taking inventory of the Foundation’s actual energy consumption in our previous headquarters. This information was used to prepare an energy study that proposed reductions or eliminations of certain equipment and re-specification of other types to make sure the Foundation was using the most efficient models on the market. The next step was to take the hours of consumption along with the inventoried plug loads to predict total energy consumption for the new headquarters building. The consumption projection was added to the production projection to develop the net energy prediction.

Net zero energy is calculated on an annual basis and is dependent on the amount of energy that is produced from our solar panels. Because the sun isn’t always shining throughout the winter and spring months, the graph’s curves are depicting the trends based on the seasonality of the local area.

Think of our energy production and consumption as a bank where we make deposits and withdrawals. From August to November we were depositing energy into the bank. Then from November to April we were withdrawing from our account to get us through the winter before we start to deposit again. Our goal is to end at or above the 0 (net zero energy) line.

There are multiple ways that the Foundation is tracking our energy production and consumption. One way is through our PG&E utility bills and another way is through our own internal monitoring systems. This allows for a “checks and balances” process to ensure that the data we are tracking is accurate. When the Foundation first opened its doors, we were still calibrating our internal systems and therefore were dependent on our PG&E bills for tracking, which we received monthly. This accounts for the initial elongated lines from July to January. Starting in February, we switched to the internal systems which give us detailed daily data to track the building’s performance.

The graph curves the way it does because of the time of year we started tracking the building’s net zero energy performance. The volume above or below 0 does not depict a balance between production and consumption, it shows the balance of energy supplied to or borrowed from the PG&E power grid over our net zero year of July 17th 2012 to July 17th 2013. When the line is above 0 it indicates we are a net zero producer of energy, when the line is below 0, as in the winter months that means we are “borrowing” energy from PG&E. At the end of the year, if the line is at or above 0 that means we have met or exceeded the net zero energy goal for that year. If the net zero year were to start in April, then the building would most likely never be “in debt” to PG&E for energy.