OVERVIEW: The Schmidt Family Foundation comprises the 11th Hour Project and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners. The Schmidts are major ocean conservation and climate science funders, but their philanthropy also addresses human rights, Indigenous rights, science, media & journalism, global development, food system sustainability and regenerative agriculture.
IP TAKE: The Schmidt Family Foundation has rapidly become influential in its giving areas, especially in ocean conservation, climate and sustainability. It supports a collective of philanthropic and impact investing organizations that bring “dynamism, optimism and the power of networks and communities to drive change from the world of technology to the world of philanthropy.” In an exclusive interview with IP, co-founder Wendy Schmidt emphasized the power of ambitious investments in both the people and the technologies that can create transformational change. “We are the product of Silicon Valley careers and believe the world can change, and very rapidly,” she said.
This is an organization with overlapping interests, programs and initiatives, and the Schmidts tend to reconfigure their strategies and organizations frequently. The majority of Schmidt’s grantmaking — including at the 11th Hour Project, its largest climate outfit, which is funded by TSFF — is strictly by invitation only, but opportunity for scientists, academics, and startups exists via the Schmidt Marine Technology Partners program, which supports “the development of ocean technologies that solve complex ocean health issues, and in most cases have strong commercialization potential.” Schmidt likes to partner with its grantees over longer periods of time and collaborate on research and media projects. Grants are sizable, collaborative and often multi-year, but highly specific in terms of aims and expected outcomes. All funding occurs through an equity lens, so your work should align at this level as well. Getting on this funder’s radar will require that your work is visible, backed with solid research and financials, as well as a team that is willing to network. This is a large, dynamic foundation with evolving interests, so grantseekers in the clean energy, sustainability, and climate justice spaces should keep a look out here.
PROFILE: The Schmidt Family Foundation (TSFF), based in Palo Alto, was founded by billionaires Eric and Wendy Schmidt. TSFF is one of the major anchor organizations through which the Schmidts conduct their increasingly high-profile philanthropic work. Eric Schmidt is a former CEO of Google, while Wendy Schmidt is a former journalist and philanthropy veteran. The Schmidts are best known for their ocean conservation work, but have also made grants and investments in initiatives for renewable energy, sustainable food systems, technology, human rights and global development, among other areas. The foundation’s overarching purpose is “to work toward a healthy, resilient and secure world for all.” Giving, investing, and signature programs are global in scope, though the majority of grantmaking is within the U.S.
Eric Schmidt grew up outside Washington, D.C., and he studied electrical engineering at Princeton University and the University of California at Berkeley. After receiving a Ph.D., he held technical positions at companies including Bell Labs, Xerox, Sun Microsystems and Novell, before serving as CEO and executive chair of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, from 2001 until 2020. He has also served on the board of Apple. Wendy Schmidt grew up in Orange, New Jersey, and attended Smith College before heading to the University of California at Berkeley for her graduate work in journalism. She worked in the marketing department at Sun Microsystems for several years before leaving to start an interior design firm. Today she is the president of the Schmidt Family Foundation, the 11th Hour Project and the Schmidt Ocean Institute, where she focuses much of her philanthropy on environmental issues, including environmental cleanup, sustainable agriculture and the development of clean energy.
The Schmidt Family Foundation comprises the 11th Hour Project and Schmidt Marine Technology Partners:
- The 11th Hour Project is the main grantmaking vehicle of TSFF. It pursues the larger foundation’s mission to “restore a balanced relationship between people and planet” through partnerships with “communities around the world in working for renewable energy, resilient food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights.” This entity centers the work and concerns of “historically excluded demographics, particularly BIPOC and frontline communities.”
- Schmidt Marine Technology Partners is solely focused on ocean conservation. Its stated mission is to “help teams move promising marine technology ideas toward economic sustainability and global impact.”
Note that Schmidt Sciences, launched in 2024, is a separate entity that has replaced and expanded upon two former SFF projects: Rise, which supported early-career scientists and leaders, and Schmidt Futures, which funded promising research and technology development. Other Schmidt entities include include 11th Hour Racing, Remain, the Schmidt Ocean Institute.
Almost all of TSFF’s programs or affiliated funding entities center on the balance between nature and humanity, which means each funding vehicle’s work supports the environment in some significant, and often overlapping, way.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Agriculture
- Grants for the environment and climate change constitute a significant portion of the 11th Hour Project’s grantmaking. The 11th Hour’s Energy and Minerals + Materials programs pursue clean energy solutions to the climate change crisis through research and innovation, while its Impact Investing program supports promising enterprises for clean energy and climate mitigation.
- The 11th Hour Projects supports the overlapping areas of sustainable agriculture and food systems via its Ag Tech and Food & Agriculture programs.
Grants for Environmental Conservation and Community Development
The work of many of the Schmidt Family Foundation’s programs and various funding entities intersect with some aspect of the environment, typically via the climate or the ocean; however, the N² or “nature and nurture” program, also part of the 11th Hour Project, specifically funds community-driven youth programs that offer learning and leadership development opportunities that emphasize the outdoors.
- This program aims to bring “water and land connection[s] into the way we build strong youth and communities.”
- Grants have supported organizations including the Cheyenne River Youth Project, the Keres Children’s Learning Center in Pueblo, New Mexico and Yes! Nature to Neighborhoods which runs runs programs that connect leadership development to community well-being in Richmond, California.
Grants for Marine and Ocean Conservation
Funding for marine conservation stems from SFF’s Schmidt Marine Technology Partners initiative. The mission of this program is to “move promising marine technology ideas toward economic sustainability and global impact.” Funding supports promising and innovative work from “academia, the nonprofit sector, and the start-up community.” Currently, the initiative names four focus areas:
- Grants for Sustainable Fisheries support efforts to increase sustainable fishing practices around the world, with a special focus on reducing bycatch, enforcement of regulations, increasing the transparency of the industry and improving the livelihoods of fishers everywhere. Grantees include San Francisco’s WildAid Marine, South Africa’s Abalobi, Trygg Mat Tracking of Norway and Canada’s Katchi Technologies, which has developed a more sustainable, safe and efficient trawling net.
- Ocean Observing refers to the Marine Technology Partners’ support for the development and/or improvement of technologies that allow scientists to better observe, track and predict ocean processes. Grants and investments target solutions to “challenges significantly limiting ocean research and conservation work,” including the improvement of sensors and power sources, and the prevention of corrosion and biofouling. Grants have supported MIT’s Future Ocean Labs, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts and Canada’s Ocean Diagnostics, among others.
- The Habitat Health focus area is concerned mainly with the effects of climate change on oceans and marine ecosystems. A few areas of specific interest include coral reefs, oyster beds, invasive species and the monitoring of ocean pollution. Grant recipients include San Francisco’s Wild Oyster Project, Tanzania’s Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative and the Coral Gardeners of Bali, Indonesia.
- Finally, Marine Technology Partners provides Network Support for the scaling and implementation of promising research, data and technology in the field. These grants are meant to “build out foundational services and tools that support the marine tech community at large.” Support has gone to the Outlaw Ocean Project, Oceanhub Africa and the University of California Santa Cruz’s Coastal Science and Policy Progra
Grants for Human Rights, Racial Justice and Indigenous Rights
The 11th Hour Project names human rights as a priority that runs through all of its grantmaking programs, but it also runs a grantmaking program focused specifically on Human Rights, as well as a program that specifically advances the rights and self-determination of Indigenous Communities.
Grants for Civic Engagement, Democracy and Journalism
The 11th Hour’s Emerging Strategies focus area currently names journalism, civic engagement and data science for social good as its priorities. While these are newer areas of giving at 11th hour, the foundation indicates that this grantmaking will be “cross programmatic,” complimenting is climate, agriculture and human rights work.
- Journalism grants focus on BIPOC communities in the U.S. and abroad, enabling communities to “tell their own stories.”
- The Civic Engagement subprogram focuses mainly on the U.S., where the right to protest and participate in the democratic process is threatened.
- Data Science for Social Good refers to support for efforts to leverage “ethical and responsible applications of powerful data science tools” and the democratization of the data science field.
- Grantees of the Emerging Strategies Program include the Texas Organizing Project, the University of Chicago Data Science Institute, North Dakota Native Voice and the BlackOUT Collective, among others.
Important Grant Details:
The Schmidt Family Foundation’s grants range broadly from $5,000 to $5 million, although most grants stay under the $500,000 mark.
- The foundation’s largest grants support scientific, computational and conservation research, as well as food and sustainable agriculture, with many leading institutes in fields of interest receiving ongoing support.
- Many grantees receive multi-year and collaborative and strategic support from the foundation.
- This funder likes to support cutting-edge and early-stage projects with high potential to provide solutions to pressing problems related to sustainable development, environment, climate change and technology.
- The Schmidts are also interested in supporting the next generation of talent in the foundation’s areas of interest and “storytelling” that disseminates knowledge about the causes they care about. This includes climate journalism and documentaries.
- The 11th Hour Projects accepts proposals by invitation only, but Schmidt Marine Technology Partners accepts proposals via its application portal. In a recent year, the application window closed in May.
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- Most program pages offer information about past and current Schmidt grantees.
- Some of Schmidt’s websites offer staff contact information, but general inquiries may be sent via email to the foundation at info@tsffoundation.org or staff@tsffoundation.org.
- The foundation’s phone number is listed as (650) 376-7100.
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