HEFN

The Jenifer Altman Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to the vision of a socially just and ecologically sustainable future through program interests in environmental health and mind-body health.

The Jenifer Altman Foundation has four areas of interest:

Grants to address the impact of chemicals on human and ecological health, and to develop and strengthen an integrated global environmental health and justice movement.

Grants that contribute to the well-being of the small coastal community of Bolinas, California, where Jenifer Altman spent the last years of her life.

Jenifer Altman had a strong desire to ensure continued support of Commonweal's work. JAF makes a sustaining grant to Commonweal each year.

Some grants simply do not fit within the parameters of our funding priorities, but present a unique opportunity and reflect the ethos of the Foundation.

In addition to our own grants program, the Jenifer Altman Foundation (JAF) staff manage the Barbara Smith Fund and the Bet Lev Foundation, and provide advisory services to the StarFire Fund and the Marisla Foundation’s Environmental Health and Justice work in the Global South.

Additional projects of the Jenifer Altman Foundation include:

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Jenifer Altman Foundation expanded its work with grantees and colleagues in the region, and continues to play an active role in the Gulf Coast Fund for Community Renewal and Ecological Health (the Fund). The Fund is a collaborative grant making effort that engages, empowers and benefits displaced and returning residents, and promotes the sustainable and just rebuilding of neighborhoods, cities and ecosystems throughout the Gulf Coast. The Fund, housed at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, engages with an Advisory Group comprised of local and state community leaders from the Gulf Coast region.  The Advisory Group informs the grant making process and identifies both the issues of greatest concern to the affected communities and the organizations capable of providing the necessary leadership to address these key areas of need.  The Fund has been designed to support projects that help to strengthen and amplify local organizing, address justice concerns and build movement through community-driven philanthropy.

 Created in 2005, the Jenifer Altman Awards are given in honor of outstanding commitment and service to the promoting and protecting of human and ecological health. Each year, a specific theme is chosen for the awards.