OVERVIEW: The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation supports philanthropy, technological advancement, clean energy, health, education, human rights and the sciences.
IP TAKE: The Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation notoriously low-profile approach obscures the depth of its giving. It channels nearly all its grants through donor-advised funds, making traditional direct grantseeking unlikely. According to 990s, this funder consistently ranks in the top 40 across the U.S., making it, as IP’s Michael Kavate writes, a “peer of legacy giants.” Despite this, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation’s lack of a website reduces clarity about giving strategies and approaches. Note that because black box billionaire Larry Page and Lucinda Southworth have chosen to make their biggest grants to the donor-advised funds, the guidance below has been sketched from available information. When the fund does give recorded grants, it offers general operating support via cash grants. An exception to this ambiguity is Southworth’s Oceankind, an LLC that works to conserve ocean ecosystems around the world, offering more transparency into this couple’s thinking through philanthropy. Via Google.org — Larry and Sergey’s corporate philanthropic vehicle — Larry has also focused on developing environmentally sustainable energy. All this to say that Page’s giving only began coming into clearer view in 2023. Perhaps the Page and Southworth family’s giving through their Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation will be less opaque in the coming years. Oceankind’s increasing transparency may signal a move toward a more robust presence throughout all their funding vehicles. However, for now, nearly every penny from the Victor Page Foundation goes to a DAF that has no transparency or annual payout requirements.
Like fellow Google cofounder Sergey Brin’s Sergey Brin Family Foundation, this funder does not accept unsolicited applications or LOIs, preferring a proactive approach to grantmaking. It gives just a handful of grant each year. As the fund sheds more light on its giving, clean energy and climate change have become leading, visible interests for the Fund. This funder is not directly approachable via traditional grantseeking methods. Grantseekers would ideally position themselves through relationships with major DAF sponsors and align closely with the foundation’s thematic priorities.
PROFILE: Established in 2006, the Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Larry Page, Google co-founder, and Lucinda Southworth. The fund, named after Larry’s father, is headquartered in Palo Alto. His parents, Carl and Gloria Page, both served as professors of computer science at Michigan State University, where Carl Page was considered a leading researcher in artificial intelligence. The fund invests in a range of interests that intersect with technology, sustainability and human rights — overlapping with giving from other corporate and private foundations through which the family directs or conducts funding.
Originally from Michigan, Larry Page did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan before attending Stanford for a master’s degree in computer science. He then enrolled there for a Ph.D. in computer science, where he met Sergey Brin, a Russian immigrant and fellow Ph.D. student. The two worked together on research concerning search engine optimization. Their paper, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” was one of the most downloaded academic articles of its time. Between 1996 and 1997, the two created the PageRank algorithm forming the cornerstone of Google search, the world’s largest search engine. Lucinda Southworth, Page’s partner, is a research geneticist who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford before earning her Ph.D. in biomedical informatics at Stanford University. The couple married in 2007 and now direct the Carl Victor Page Memorial Fund together.
Grants for Philanthropy
Since the Carol Victor Page Memorial Foundation gives primarily to donor-advised funds, much of the fund’s giving is broad in scope and unclear to discern.
- In 2023, this funder gave $218 million to the Schwab Charitable Fund, while it gave over $275 million to the National Philanthropic Trust in 2022.
- In previous years, it has also given similar amounts to Vanguard Charitable; however, the National Philanthropic Trust has been a repeat beneficiary.
Grants for Climate Change, Clean Energy and Environmental Conservation
In 2023, this funder ramped up giving for clean energy — at least according to 990s. These recent grants indicate an interest in the intersection between renewable energy and technology, as well as climate change research:
- Recent climate grants include $10 million to the Instituto de Clima e Sociedade in Rio de Janeiro; $4 million to the Energy Foundation; $3 million to the Stichting European Climate Foundation.
- Through Google.org, his company’s philanthropic arm, Page has attempted to discover ways to use science and modern technology to solve persistent societal problems, focusing particularly on the development of environmentally sustainable energy. He has demonstrated a commitment to this concept through his investment in companies such as Tesla Motors, which is developing long-range, battery-powered vehicles, and through investments made as part of his stewardship of Google.org. These investments include $130 million to a company that makes solar panels and $10 million to a company developing a kite system that will tap into jet streams for power, as well as a demonstration project attempting to generate electrical power using geothermal energy.
- Outside of his Google.org endeavors, Page is a board member of the XPrize Foundation, which organizes large-scale competitions in five major categories: education, global development, energy and environment, life sciences and exploration. The purpose of the competitions is to stimulate investment in research and development designed to bring about change that hopefully will benefit humanity.
- Environmental conservation grants in 2023 include support for the World Resources Institute and Global Fishing Watch.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
- Page and Southworth joined the growing number of funders donating to combat Ebola, pledging $15 million from his Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation, and another $10 million from Google.org.
- In 2023, the University of California Berkeley Foundation received $750,000 to boost medical specialties. Upstream USA received $500,000 for community healthcare.
- Other health grantees have included the American Cancer Society, Shoo the Flu and the Regents of the University of California Berkeley.
Important Grant Details:
While the average grant amount here hovers around $1,000, this funder gives over $270 million a year to donor-advised funds.
- Previous 990s kept a tight lid on what kinds of focus areas receive support from the fund; however, recent 990s from 2023 reveal an increasing pattern of climate, energy and environmental giving.
- This is primarily a national funder whose giving appears to stay in the U.S. Grantmaking appears to prioritize California, where the fund and other funding vehicles associated with Page and Southworth are headquartered. That said, the fund’s tendency to give its largest grants to DAFs gives the impression that grants cluster in Colorado, Pennsylvania and New York; however, we can’t know yet for certain where grants are actually clustering.
- This foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or invite contact, despite information provided below.
PEOPLE:
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CONTACT:
Carl Victor Page Memorial Foundation
2200 Geng Rd., Ste. 100
Palo Alto, CA 94303
(650) 210-5000