OVERVIEW: Eaglemere Foundation supports environmental conservation, global health and global development concerns.
IP TAKE: The vast majority of Eaglemere’s funding supports environmental conservation, with grants going to recognizable organizations in the field, many of which receive ongoing support. While its giving spans land, water and wildlife conservation, its geographic focus appears to be the Northeast, although national and international organizations have also received funding. This funder does not accept unsolicited proposals, making it an exceptionally competitive space. A direct connection to Marilyn or Jay Sarles might be the best way to get noticed.
PROFILE: Based in Massachusetts, the Eaglemere Foundation was established by Marilyn and Jay Sarles. Eaglemere was founded primarily as an environmental conservation foundation. Its founders, the Sarles, are heavily involved in the environmental conservation community—Marilyn, an M.D., serves as the vice chair of the Massachusetts Board of Trustees at the Nature Conservancy. Jay Sarles graduated with a B.A. from Amherst College. He joined FleetBoston Financial where he worked for nearly four decades, rising to vice chairman and chief administrative officer. He was also vice chairman of Bank of America Corporation.
The foundation’s main area of giving is environmental conservation. It also makes grants for global health and development from an environmental perspective. The Eaglemere Foundation seeks organizations that “pursue a pragmatic, science-based, multi-stakeholder approach and that cooperate and collaborate with other organizations, governments, businesses and individuals.” Eaglemere maintains a simple website, limiting information about its specific grantmaking strategies.
Grants for Environmental Conservation and Climate Change
The Eaglemere Foundation is largely a a funder of environmental conservation. It conceives of its environmental work as both “programmatic (river restoration, ecosystem conservation, species preservation, climate change mitigation) and geographic (New England, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Latin America).”
- Environmental work has addressed dams, strengthened protections for endangered species, and reinforced climate resilience across the world.
- The foundation does not name particular environmental grantmaking strategies, preferring to give general support. Environmental grants tend to be its largest, often ranging from about $15,000 to $225,000.
- The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Environmental Defense Fund have received some of its largest grants. Other past environmental grantees include Trustees for Alaska Trust, The River Network, Lakes Region Conservation, and Central Park Conservancy among others.
Grants for Global Development and Global Health
The Eaglemere Foundation does not name specific areas of focus for its health and global development grantmaking.
- Recent grantees include Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam, which have received $60,000 and $50,000 respectively.
- The couple have supported science and medical research at several prominent Northeastern colleges. Amherst and Mt. Holyoke house the Sarles Science Research Fund and the Marilyn Dawson Sarles, M.D. Professor of Life Sciences and Professor of Chemistry, respectively.
- The couple also created the Sarles Scholarship Fund for Medical Education at Brown, where Marilyn got her M.D. degree. At Tufts, meanwhile, the couple made a $100,000 gift to help establish a Master of Science in Conservation Medicine at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
Important Grant Details:
Eaglemere’s recent tax filings reveal grants ranging from about $3,000 to $125,000. The foundation made about $1 million in grants in a recent year.
- Generally, it supports about 30 organizations a year, about 10 or less in the health and development sphere.
- Unfortunately, these grants do not define specific global health or development focuses.
- Explore past grantees further here.
- The foundation conducts both national and international grantmaking. U.S. grants tend to cluster around Boston, Washington, New York and Anchorage, Alaska, but work in Brazil, Latin America and the Arctic, among other geographic areas, has also received funding.
- The foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for funding or grant applications.
- It does, however, encourage grant seekers to reach out to its Executive Director Dan Sarles, dgsarles@eaglemere.org, with questions.
PEOPLE:
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