The McCune Foundation received a $35 million donation in late 2021 to fully fund its endowment, the foundation announced. An additional $1 million was donated toward its 2022 operations. Both gifts were from SAGE Publishing.
Operating in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties since its founding in 1990, the McCune Foundation promotes productive change in society through the sustained support of social justice causes. It has supported groups that are mobilizing youth groups, farm workers, immigrants, and rural residents, on behalf of various social justice goals for their communities in the region.
The McCune Foundation was originally envisioned in 1989 by Sara Miller McCune and her husband George McCune as part of their estate plan. Their hope was to impact the communities around the world where SAGE had its offices at the time, including Thousand Oaks, London, and New Delhi.
George McCune was the foundation’s first president, but served only a short period; he died in May 1990. His wife Sara Miller McCune then became president.
Beginning in 2001, the foundation shifted to focus on initiatives by community-based groups in California’s Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Throughout the next two decades, grants from the foundation have supported activists in advocating for language interpretation services at schools and clinics, living wage ordinances, safeguards for farmworkers, and census outreach.
The McCune Foundation’s grantmaking-focus on grassroots projects that involve building, or increasing social capital, will remain the same. Examples include a variety of community organizing strategies to promote social and economic justice.
Empowerment of politically and/or economically marginalized groups based in Santa Barbara or Ventura counties is a requirement for funding. Those with projects that may be eligible for a grant should contact Araceli Centeno, program officer.
Headquartered in Thousand Oaks, SAGE Publishing is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library products and services, founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune.
The McCune Foundation supports projects that address critical issues in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties by empowering and mobilizing excluded populations. The foundation suports grassroots, bottom-up organizations in which “clients” are the initiators and involved in decision-making.