The Jenifer Altman Foundation

Our lives are touched by those who lived centuries ago, and we hope that our lives will mean something to those who will live centuries from now. It's a great 'chain of being,' someone once told me, and I think our job is to hope, to dream and to do the best we can to hold up our small segment of that chain.
-- Dorothy Day

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. Jenifer Altman was an environmentalist, an advocate for cancer patients, a photographer, and in her last years, a resident of the small coastal town of Bolinas, California. Jenifer came to Bolinas to participate in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program after her diagnosis with cancer. Before her death, she established the Jenifer Altman Foundation to support Commonweal and other projects focused on health and the environment.

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

Given our small staff and the breadth of organizations we manage and support, we no longer accept unsolicited proposals.

SPECIAL PROJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS

The Gulf Coast Fund
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 Jenifer Altman Awards Program
This program honors outstanding commitment and service in promoting and protecting human and ecological health. 2005 PRESS RELEASE

Michael Lerner's book "A Gift Observed: Reflections on Philanthropy and Civilization," has circulated for over a decade in the philanthropic and civil society community. You can download it here for free.