Our Vision: We envision a nation where every child has the opportunity to obtain an excellent education, enabling them to walk a path to economic independence and success of their own choosing.
Our Mission: We invest in organizations that seek to provide high-quality learning opportunities for children in under-resourced communities.
We believe leaders need to ensure that the following practices are woven into any learning opportunity to create the optimal conditions for success, though the specific form they take may vary significantly. We take an evolving approach, revisiting our assumptions periodically and embracing new practices when evidence for their efficacy emerges.
Curriculum – Rigorous, coherent, culturally relevant, high-quality curriculum is utilized to build knowledge and skills.
Engagement – Student engagement and achievement are prioritized and thoughtfully cultivated.
Community – Diverse perspectives are welcome, a strong sense of community and inclusion is present, and families are valued as partners.
Character – Students are developed broadly and holistically, beyond academics.
As Executive Director, Alex leads The Louis Calder Foundation’s team, fostering the best possible environment for success. Alex oversees all resources and methods to fulfill the mission and vision of the board. Alex works closely with the Trustees, developing strategies to help operations adhere to the core themes of The Louis Calder Foundation.
Aside from directing organizational, administrative, financial, and HR activities, Alex provides final approval of all grant recommendations before presenting grantees to the Trustees. Alex appreciates the honor and responsibility of carrying out the positive influence that The Louis Calder Foundation has strived to create over the past 70+ years.
As Executive Director, Alex leads The Louis Calder Foundation’s team, fostering the best possible environment for success. Alex oversees all resources and methods to fulfill the mission and vision of the board. Alex works closely with the Trustees, developing strategies to help operations adhere to the core themes of The Louis Calder Foundation.
Aside from directing organizational, administrative, financial, and HR activities, Alex provides final approval of all grant recommendations before presenting grantees to the Trustees. Alex appreciates the honor and responsibility of carrying out the positive influence that The Louis Calder Foundation has strived to create over the past 70+ years.
Claire builds the foundation that enables the rest of the team to focus on what’s most important, our grantees. With more than a decade of nonprofit management experience, Claire enjoys installing systems and creating efficiencies that keep organizations running smoothly. She manages all financial and administrative functions, including audit and tax, budgeting and reporting, human resources, legal, and technology.
Claire builds the foundation that enables the rest of the team to focus on what’s most important, our grantees. With more than a decade of nonprofit management experience, Claire enjoys installing systems and creating efficiencies that keep organizations running smoothly. She manages all financial and administrative functions, including audit and tax, budgeting and reporting, human resources, legal, and technology.
As Program Director, Holly is responsible for sourcing needful prospects to represent the best of which The Louis Calder Foundation can be. Holy directs program activities and implements policies/procedures for the supporting team.
Holy qualifies grantees to ensure they match the philosophies and goals of the organization. The continued success of the Foundation’s ventures is dependent on a stream of applicants embodying the core values of Louis Calder.
As Program Director, Holly is responsible for sourcing needful prospects to represent the best of which The Louis Calder Foundation can be. Holy directs program activities and implements policies/procedures for the supporting team.
Holy qualifies grantees to ensure they match the philosophies and goals of the organization. The continued success of the Foundation’s ventures is dependent on a stream of applicants embodying the core values of Louis Calder.
As a former grant writer and executive director, Kristin brings experience from the other side of the grant-giving process. Kristin manages both internal and external deadlines and keeps internal systems moving on the right track, sometimes offering solutions for a more efficient process for both grantees and the program team. Along with grant management, Kristin supports the management of internal projects and the foundation’s Salesforce database.
As a former grant writer and executive director, Kristin brings experience from the other side of the grant-giving process. Kristin manages both internal and external deadlines and keeps internal systems moving on the right track, sometimes offering solutions for a more efficient process for both grantees and the program team. Along with grant management, Kristin supports the management of internal projects and the foundation’s Salesforce database.
The Founder
The Louis Calder Foundation was established in 1951 “for educational, charitable, and benevolent uses and purposes.” To this day, The Foundation continues to follow and expand upon Louis Calder’s beliefs and efforts in promoting childhood education.
The aggregate and appraised value of Louis Calder’s gifts to The Foundation is $36,399,017.
The Life of Louis Calder (1879-1963)
Mr. Calder was born in New York City on March 8, 1879, to James Calder and Mary Helwig Calder who immigrated to the United States from Scotland and Ireland, respectively. He broke into the “paper business” at the age of 8 by selling newspapers, which he continued to do all through his school years. Just before he reached the age of 18, he was offered two jobs – one with a railroad at $50 a month and another as an office boy with Perkins-Goodwin at $4 a week. As he averaged $15 or more a week selling newspapers, the decision was a difficult one to make, but the paper business, in spite of its lower financial return, had the greater appeal. His interview at Perkins-Goodwin was all he needed to know it was his best opportunity, a choice he never had a reason to regret.
Perkins-Goodwin was one of the largest marketing and management organizations in the pulp and paper field, serving as an essential link between pulp and paper mills and their markets. Starting as an office boy, between 1897 and 1907 he saved enough money to buy his first shares of company stock and was elected a director two years later, rising to become President and controlling shareholder almost 25 years after joining the firm. He successfully positioned Perkins-Goodwin as an industry leader throughout his tenure and continued as Board Chairman until he died in 1963.
Driving Innovation Within the Paper Industry
The annual output of the United States paper mills running on wood pulp in the late 1920s was around 3 million tons, but more than half the materials used were imported. The timberlands of the northern United States, stands of slow-growing spruce, were being greatly reduced. Recognizing the seriousness of this situation, Mr. Calder decided it was necessary to investigate alternative sources outside the boundaries of the United States, particularly the Scandinavian countries where Perkins-Goodwin was well and favorably known. In 1929 Perkins-Goodwin acquired the Scandinavian Pulp Agency, Inc. resulting in Perkins-Goodwin representation of a large portion of the Scandinavian Paper Mills in the United States.
Mr. Calder had witnessed the development of kraft paper from its earliest days. When he first started working for Perkins-Goodwin, paper making had been largely confined to the Middle Atlantic and New England States, and production consisted mostly of newsprint and book papers. While making a survey of the South in 1934, Mr. Calder became convinced that the idea of making newsprint out of lesser used Southern Pine was a sound one and that its successful development would mean the beginning of a great new industry for the South. He was among the first to recognize and supported the work that would revolutionize the use of fast-growing southern pine as a resource for producing newsprint and kraft paper, reducing the industry’s dependence on Northern Spruce at a time when paper was becoming hard-to-find.
In the 1930s, as a controlling shareholder in Union Bag & Paper Corp., he was instrumental in the building of the company’s Savannah, Georgia, paper plant. Completed in 1936, it remains an economic driver for the region. He also became a founder and director of Southland Paper Mills in Lufkin, TX, through his partnership with East Texas timber interests. No one could have foreseen that World War II would break out in 1939 and that a few years later pulp and paper would become essential products and two of the most strictly rationed commodities. Being at the hub of the wheel around which the problems of the suppliers and users gyrated, Perkins-Goodwin did its part and enabled the industry to meet the multiple requirements of the armed forces and civilian needs, in spite of labor and material shortages and the fact that pulp imports from Scandinavia were completely cut off.
Pioneering the First Gas Stations
While establishing Perkins-Goodwin as a leader in the industry, Mr. Calder was also a successful pioneer in the retail gasoline market. During World War I, he originated one of the first drive-in, metered gas stations in New York. This venture, known as the Kesbec Oil Company, grew to 55 stations by 1931, when Mr. Calder sold a controlling interest to Standard Oil. Mr. Calder continued as president, and ultimately more than 80 gas stations served customers on New York and Westchester County parkways.
A Love for Nature
Mr. Calder was an avid outdoorsman and naturalist; his love for nature was well known and appreciated by family, friends, and colleagues. Alongside his talents, drive, and savviness as a businessman and innovator, Mr. Calder found great solace, peace, and humility in the presence of nature.
In 1967, The Foundation gifted his 113-acre estate to Fordham University with the understanding that the “premises will be used primarily as a reserve for the study of the natural environment and other fields of ecology…” for the university’s faculty and students. Now known as the Calder Center for Ecological Studies, the facility is renowned for its biological and ecological research. The Calder Center’s continued research helps to comprehend, explore, and preserve the natural world Louis treasured throughout all his days.
The Foundation
In 1951 Louis Calder established The Louis Calder Foundation through the creation of a charitable trust in New York. The Foundation, established for education, charitable, and benevolent uses, has been and continues to be governed by three Trustees who direct the charitable grantmaking and ensure that grants made from the trust follow the mandate of The Foundation.
In The Foundation’s early years, grantmaking was driven by Louis Calder’s personal charitable interests, which included the arts community, cultural museums, youth programs, and colleges. After he resigned from The Foundation in 1960, the Trustees focused The Foundation’s grantmaking on support of youth programming in New York City. The Foundation also granted funds to college and universities, establishing over two dozen scholarship endowments that live on today.
In the 1990s and into the early 2000s, The Foundation continued its concentration on youth programs, expanding its geographic area into the greater New York City metropolitan area. Grantmaking focused on community-based organizations that provided meaningful, nurturing, and enriching educational programming during non-school hours.
In the 2000s, The Foundation focused grantmaking on three questions – what is taught, when it’s taught, and how it’s taught. The Foundation discovered that a content-rich curriculum provides students with a foundational beginning that will lead to the critical thinking and reasoning skills necessary for participation in society. This thesis helped shape the Foundation’s giving for over a decade, focused on work within the school day at both charter and parochial K-8 schools. During this time, grantmaking expanded to the East Coast and then nationally as The Foundation followed a growing charter movement and aimed to deepen its impact.
In 2021, The Foundation further revised its investments within the field of education, focusing on charter school growth, the science of reading, and two generation programs. These themes are the continued evolution of The Foundation’s focus on education, an area that throughout its history has risen to the highest priority of the Trustees and is represented throughout its grantmaking.
The aggregate and appraised value of the Founder’s gifts to the Foundation was $36,399,017. Grant payments have totaled $311,045,411 since 1951, and the market value of the Trust was $171,168,113 as of October 31, 2023.
