Posted on May 24, 2012

Newman's Own Foundation Will Award $30 Million in 2012 Grants

The Newman's Own Foundation has announced that it will award $30 million in grants during 2012, the largest one-year total in the company's thirty-year history.

To kick off its "30 Years of Giving" celebration, the foundation awarded grants totaling approximately $10 million to organizations working in four high-impact focus areas: nutrition, children with life-limiting conditions, empowerment, and the encouragement of philanthropy. Grantees include the D.C.-based Food Research and Action Center; the SeriousFun Children's Network, formerly known as the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps, which actor Paul Newman created in 1988; the Safe Water Network; and the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, which Newman co-founded.

Based in Westport, Connecticut, the foundation receives royalties from Newman's Own, Inc., the food products company created by Newman and author A.E. Hotchner in 1982; since its creation, the company has awarded more than $350 million in after-tax profits and royalties. Newman, who died in 2008, established the foundation in 2005 as a means to continue his pledge to donate to charity all net proceeds and royalties from the sale of the company's products.

"Paul went against conventional wisdom by creating all-natural food products and giving 100 percent of the profits to charity," said Robert H. Forrester, president and CEO of the Newman's Own Foundation. "Early on, someone asked Paul whether a company that gives all of its profits away could survive. Thirty years later, we have not only survived but grown and, as a result, helped thousands of organizations make a difference in the lives of others. In the first year, Paul donated around $300,000, and this year it will be one hundred times that."