January 19, 2011
Following the death of Goldman Environmental Prize founder Richard Goldman in November 2010, plans about the future of his two organizations were announced today. The Goldman Environmental Prize will continue its normal operations while the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund will close its doors in December 2012.
Below is a joint statement released today by the three Fund board members, John D. Goldman, Douglas E. Goldman and Susan R. Gelman:
“On December 31, 2012, after sixty years and almost $700 million in philanthropic support to nonprofit organizations around the world, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund will cease operations. We extend our gratitude to the thousands of grantees who have worked so hard to create a better world. The Fund’s accomplishments are in no small part your accomplishments.
Our parents created the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund to provide fuel for visionaries and to be a catalyst for change. With the Fund’s support, committed and courageous leaders have protected some of our most precious natural and cultural treasures for future generations. They have fed the hungry. They have opened minds through education, science and the arts. They have worked to improve access to reproductive health for women in the United States and throughout the world. And they have built a more engaging and inclusive Jewish community.
It has been a remarkable half-century. Now, as our father envisioned, the torch is passed to us, as the next generation, to carry on the commitment to tzedakah that lived so strongly in our parents. And we will instill those values in our children so that they, too, will proudly participate in the challenges and joys of philanthropy.”
