Rockefeller Family Fund

Legal name: Rockefeller Family Fund Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
136257658
IRS 990 coverage
2020–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
Location
New York, NY, United States
Phone
212.812.4252
Rating
88
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Named Trusts N.E.C.

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$50,100,215
Expenses
$48,182,224
Assets
$216,778,910
Liabilities
$5,464,615

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

25 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MIRANDA KAISER (PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)
  • LUCIA GILL CASE (VICE PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)
  • PETER GILL CASE (VICE PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)
  • NEVA GOODWIN (VICE PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)
  • TARA ROCKEFELLER (VICE PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)
  • LIAM DRURY-WANG (VICE PRESIDENT/TRUSTEE)

Highest reported compensation

  • LEE H WASSERMAN (DIRECTOR & SECRETARY): $849,232 total reported compensation
  • JULIE FERNANDES (ASSOC. DIR. FOR DEMOCRACY): $383,297 total reported compensation
  • SARAH A BRENNAN (ASSOC. DIR. FOR OIL AND GAS): $355,392 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

A Generational Vision to Tackle Our Biggest Challenges The Rockefeller Family Fund is a U.S.-based, family-led public charity that initiates, cultivates, and funds strategic efforts to promote a sustainable, just, free, and participatory society. For more than half a century, the Rockefeller Family Fund has carried forward the family’s legacy of cutting-edge philanthropy. RFF has creatively pushed philanthropic boundaries to pursue solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges, including climate change, threats to democracy and inequality. RFF’s strategic vision and willingness to take risks led it to become the first philanthropy to change its tax status from a private foundation to a p.

What it reported doing in 2024

Rockefeller family fund programs the fund works in three main program areas: environment, democracy, and economic justice for women. In each of these areas, the fund develops and manages initiatives in conjunction with funder partners, individuals, and existing non-profit organizations, to advance critical policy objectives or build necessary capacity. Environment: the fund focuses its environment program almost exclusively on climate change. Our program emphasizes public education on the risks of global warming and implementation of sound solutions to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The fund develops initiatives to assure that fossil fuel companies do the least amount of harm to community health and comply with all relevant local, state, and federal laws and regulations during the extraction, transport, and export of fossil fuels; make responsible climate polluters pay for the damage they have caused; enact policies at the state and national levels to reduce carbon emissions; bring new voices into the climate debate; and examine how special interests are distorting science and delaying constructive steps to deal with the unfolding climate crisis.democracy: the fund's democracy program uses research and program innovation to support state-based multiracial civic organizations in their nonpartisan work to strengthen their organizing strategies and practices, with the goal of helping those organizations build and advance positive change within their communities.economic justice for women: the fund works to promote economic equity for women by making a family-friendly economic agenda a priority for state and federal officials. The fund does this by supporting a diverse coalition of women to win policy victories, build women's power, and reframe our national narrative around the link between economic and social progress and equity for women.emerging opportunities: the fund encourages and supports innovative educational programs and advocacy in issue areas outside of the fund's current areas of focus, but still within the fund's established program areas, by allocating funds to seize emerging opportunities.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 95% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Grant intermediary. The nonprofit sent 80% of its reported program spending out as grants.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 93
  • Transparency & Controls: 77
  • Accountability: 100
  • Sustainability: 61
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 92.1%; rating input score 92
  • Program expense ratio: 95.8%; rating input score 96
  • Fundraising efficiency: $174.89 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
    • Compensation committee: Pass
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: 99.6%; rating input score 100; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 3.8%; rating input score 52; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.5; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.03; rating input score 93; 93rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 8% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.9% per year; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 9.1% per year; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
  • Where the money goes: 92.1% of revenue deployed · 95.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 17 of 17 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $46.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $849K · 25 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.5M reported
  • Consistency: 38 of 38 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
  • Filing history: 4 filing years from 2020 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 211 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 204 filed related-organization links
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 52/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 11/100.