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helping PEOPLE LEAD FULFILLING AND HEALTHY LIVES IN VIBRANT COMMUNITIES

 

Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building

The foundation made a leadership gift to the University of California, San Francisco to design and build the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building, the new home of UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as of Summer 2022. The building is the culmination of a long-standing vision to integrate physical and mental health at UCSF. It is designed to optimize patient care, drive collaborative research across disciplines and disorders, and destigmatize mental health care through intentional design.

A departure from the aesthetic of older psychiatry facilities, the Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building is designed to elevate and inspire, with a five-story light-filled atrium and rooftop garden accessible to patients and staff. The building features thoughtfully selected photography to create a warm, welcoming, and calming space for patients and visitors, including an extensive photographic art collection by celebrated photographer Richard Misrach, as well as a collection by teen artists engaged in First Exposures, a local community-based art program. The building is named in honor of John’s sister, Nancy Friend Pritzker, who died by suicide at age 24 during a depressive episode in 1972. Click here for more information.

About Us 

We work to help others access the opportunity and connectedness that our family has been extremely fortunate to enjoy, and we work to strengthen systems to make that possible. We are drawn to difficult challenges and to big ideas, particularly those being overlooked by others. We are not afraid to take on seemingly intractable problems, to explore uncharted territory, or to support projects that cut against the conventional wisdom. We like to be able to see and feel the issues we’re working on. Proximity offers us a more authentic understanding of the challenges and opportunities and an ability to roll up our sleeves to be part of the solutions. We approach our work with a deep sense of empathy, humility, and determination. We listen. We participate. We lead. We follow. We play well with others.

Our Team

 
 
 
John Pritzker
Chairman

John Pritzker is Chairman of the John Pritzker Family Fund.

John is Founding Partner and Director of Geolo Capital, where he oversees all sectors of the San Francisco-based private equity and investment firm. John began his career at Hyatt Hotels Corporation in 1972, and in 1984 became Managing Director and Divisional Vice President of Hyatt Hotels and Resorts. He was a founding board member of Ticketmaster, Inc. and Chemdex/Ventro Corporation.

Most recently, John orchestrated the merger of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, Thompson Hotels, and Alila Hotels to form Commune Hotels Resorts. In January 2016, Commune Hotels and Destination Hotels merged, creating Two Roads Hospitality. The newly formed company spanned seven countries, with five hospitality brands and over 97 hotels. In December 2018, Hyatt Hotels Corp. agreed to acquire Two Roads Hospitality. Additionally, John has served as Chairman and CEO of a number of businesses in the hospitality industry, including Red Sail Sports, Mandara Spa, and The Odyssey Club (now Exclusive Resorts).

John serves on the Executive Council of UCSF Health and the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he chairs the Visiting Committee on Modern and Contemporary Art. He is also a board member of the Bernard Osher Foundation, a member of the Emeritus Board of Tipping Point Community, and a past president of the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation.

 
 
Amy Rabbino, Ph.D.
Executive Director

Amy Rabbino, Ph.D. is Executive Director of the John Pritzker Family Fund, whose mission is to help people lead fulfilling and healthy lives in vibrant communities. The foundation invests in Mental Health and Healthcare, Democracy and Civic Health, Jewish Life, and the Arts.

Amy previously served as Executive Director for the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund, where she helped steward major civic investments in San Francisco, the local Jewish community, and Israel. She also ran a philanthropy advisory practice and served on the boards of four family foundations, helping families translate their philanthropic aspirations into meaningful giving. Prior to that, Amy worked for 14 years at the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund, including as the Director of Philanthropic Services and Interim Chief Philanthropic Officer, where she oversaw the entire donor advised giving program, supporting foundations, restricted funds, and the endowment. Amy has worked throughout her career to bring management and operational best practices to the field of philanthropy.

Amy holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She enjoys running half-marathons, doing jigsaw and word puzzles, and building community.

Mike Berkowitz
Senior Advisor

Mike Berkowitz is a Senior Advisor to the John Pritzker Family Fund. In this role, he advises the foundation on its strategy, governance, grantmaking, and communications, and helps to oversee its investments in Democracy & Civic Health and Jewish Life.

Mike is co-founder and Principal of Third Plateau, a full service social impact consulting firm, where he leads the firm’s Democracy practice and works across its Philanthropic Management and Jewish Community Impact portfolios. Mike is an experienced facilitator, strategist, philanthropic advisor, and grantmaker. He specializes in weaving networks, curating philanthropic learning, and developing strategies for addressing complex challenges.

Mike is a 21/64-certified philanthropy consultant and has counseled numerous individual donors, family foundations, and institutional foundations on their philanthropic strategies. He has also advised dozens of nonprofit institutions on program design, strategic planning, impact evaluation, and development strategy.

A native of New York City, Mike lives in Berkeley with his wife, Debbie Tuttle Berkowitz, and their two sons. He has a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

 
 
Rebecca Altman
Senior Advisor

Rebecca Altman is a Senior Advisor at the John Pritzker Family Fund, where she provides leadership development and executive coaching support for the foundation and its grantees. Rebecca is a Vice President at Third Plateau, a full service social impact consulting firm, where she leverages her experience in social entrepreneurship and professional coaching to support and spark transformation in nonprofit and philanthropic leaders. Prior to Third Plateau, Rebecca worked for Ashoka in Washington, D.C. and played a key role in the launch of Ashoka Scandinavia.

Rebecca received her BA from Emory University, her MSc in Global Health from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and her coaching credentials from the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, California (CTI). Rebecca is certified in The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) and the Vertical Mindset Indicator (VMI). Rebecca lives in the East Bay with her husband and son. Born in San Francisco, Rebecca grew up in North Carolina and is a Tar Heel at heart.

Katherine Gimla Carraher
Grants Manager

Katherine Gimla Carraher is the Grants Manager at the John Pritzker Family Fund. Katherine is also Senior Grants Manager at Third Plateau, a full service social impact consulting firm, where she helps coordinate client work by providing targeted support in the areas of communications, research and analysis, data tracking, relationship building, and general operations. Before coming to Third Plateau Katherine worked with Leventhal Kline Management, where she was responsible for providing administrative and bookkeeping support for private foundation clients, grant agreement preparation and tracking, and supporting clients’ governance and recordkeeping processes.

Katherine earned a B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from Syracuse University and a Certificate in Paralegal Studies from San Francisco State University. She has lived on both coasts as well as Chicago and Puerto Rico, but now calls the East Bay home.

Maya Kageyama
Program Officer

Maya Kageyama is a Program Officer at the John Pritzker Family Fund, where she helps to oversee the foundation’s investments in Mental Health and Healthcare.

Maya is a Director at Third Plateau, a full service social impact consulting firm, where she supports leaders, teams, and organizations to align their values, purpose, and strategies, to deepen their impact and bring their visions to life. Prior to Third Plateau, Maya worked for the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, where she provided trainings, technical assistance, and coaching to nonprofits and health department programs focused on health equity and racial equity.

Maya received her B.A. from Hampshire College and her M.P.H. from University of San Francisco. She currently lives in Sacramento.

Toby Cavalier
Associate

Toby Cavalier is an Associate at the John Pritzker Family Fund.

Toby is also an Associate at Third Plateau, a full service social impact consulting firm, where he supports non-profit and philanthropic clients in the democracy and climate spaces through research, project management, and strategic planning. Before coming to Third Plateau, Toby worked for a policy analysis firm where he assessed the impact of federal Covid-19 relief funding to healthcare providers in the US.

Toby earned a B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College. He lives in San Francisco, and spends his free time reading and playing music.

 
 

Grantmaking

Our foundation invests in Mental Health and Healthcare, Democracy and Civic Health, Jewish Life, and The Arts.

We are fortunate to work with a robust set of grant partners, some of whom you can read about below.

Out of respect for your time and ours, we do not accept unsolicited proposals.

 
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mental health and healthcare

The John Pritzker Family Fund seeks to promote wellbeing by sustaining and enhancing health care provision for the most at-need people in our community.

Having experienced mental health conditions first-hand in our own family, the John Pritzker Family Fund is committed to reducing stigma and discrimination and to ensuring care is available to those who need it. Historically, people have been reticent to discuss their emotional and mental wellbeing; we aspire to break through this situation so that people feel comfortable seeking proper care and do not hold themselves back from their full potential. We support efforts to reduce stigma at the individual, interpersonal, and structural levels. Through our investments in this area, we aspire to elevate conversations about mental health across different sectors and settings, normalize the dialogue around mental health, and advance mental health treatment, to ultimately drive positive change in people’s lives and across the system.

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democracy and civic health

The John Pritzker Family Fund believes that citizens have a responsibility to their local communities and to one another. We invest in the civic health of the San Francisco Bay Area through programs that support critical community needs and civic infrastructure, that seek to make the area more livable for all residents, and that help create an informed and engaged citizenry. In California and across the world, we support communal recovery from, and resilience to, humanitarian and environmental disasters. And we invest in organizations at the local and national levels that fight for the rights of vulnerable populations, expand democratic participation and social cohesion, and defend the core principles and institutions of democracy and the rule of law.

Photo of Young Adult Shabbat at Congregation Emanu-El. Used with permission from Congregation Emanu-El.

Photo of Young Adult Shabbat at Congregation Emanu-El. Used with permission from Congregation Emanu-El.

jewish life

Motivated by the culture and tradition of the Jewish people, as well as that of our own family, the John Pritzker Family Fund supports a vibrant Jewish future in the United States, Israel, and around the world. With a primary emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area, we invest in vital institutions that serve the Jewish and broader communities. We also support work in, and related to, Israel, including educational experiences, social services, and civic projects that illuminate the rich history of the Jewish people. 

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the arts

The John Pritzker Family Fund believes that the arts provide essential outlets for creativity, imagination, and outside-the-box thinking, and are key to unleashing human potential. The foundation also believes that the arts can elevate the human spirit and deepen human understanding and compassion. We are primarily focused on the visual arts. 

Select projects

One of the foundation’s proudest investments, the India Basin Park Project is an ambitious environmental justice and open space initiative to build a new, accessible, and contiguous waterfront park for San Francisco’s Bayview community. In addition to design and partial construction of the park, the foundation’s grant is supporting a vital environmental clean-up of the former ship-building site at the center of the future park. The India Basin Park Project is a joint venture of the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, the Trust for Public Land, the San Francisco Parks Alliance, and other community organizations. Click here for more information.

Used with permission from the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.
The foundation has established the Pritzker Family Photography Collection at the National Library of Israel, which provides a visual record of the Land of Israel and Israeli society and culture from the nineteenth century to the present. The collection includes more than two million items, among them photo albums, individual photos, postcards, personal collections and archives of private photographers and photographic agencies. The foundation’s gift, part of the National Library’s campaign for its new Herzon & de Meuron designed building, will help make the photography collection more accessible to the public through exhibitions and digitization. Click here for more information.

Used with permission from the National Library of Israel.
The foundation supports the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)’s vital work representing the Jewish community in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. In addition to general support, our grant making helps underwrite the JCRC’s Israel Study Tour program, which brings influential Bay Area civic leaders to Israel with the goal of exposing them to a deeper understanding of Jews, the Jewish community, and Israel; and its Advancing Democracy Initiative, through which the organized Jewish community employs advocacy, education, and coalition-building to fight for a strong, healthy democratic and civil society in the United States. Click here for more information.

Used with permission from the JCRC.
To help defend the core principles and institutions of democracy and the rule of law, the foundation supports the Protect Democracy Project. Protect Democracy’s nonpartisan mission is to prevent American democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. The organization works on six key areas that concern scholars of autocracy: corruption of elections, executive power grabs, delegitimizing vulnerable communities, politicizing independent institutions, spreading disinformation, and quashing dissent. Protect Democracy deploys a range of tools in its work, including litigation, policy advocacy, and communications. Click here for more information.
The foundation helped create the Lens Media Lab at Yale University, which was established to preserve photography as a physical medium. The Lens Media Lab, a research facility led by Paul Messier and part of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, applies scientific principles to the conservation of photographs and other lens-based media, contributing to cutting-edge research efforts across the sciences and humanities. Click here for more information.

Used with permission from the Lens Media Lab.
The foundation supports the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the design and construction of The Met’s modern and contemporary galleries, the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing. Mexican architect Frida Escobedo was selected in a competition to design the new wing. Frida is the first woman to design a wing in the 150-year history of the Met. Escobedo brings a bold new vision for the 80,000 square-foot facility, with flexible galleries that will emphasize the interconnectedness of space and time. The new wing will enable a dynamic, inventive, and playful perspective for the museum’s curators.

The foundation supports Bring Change to Mind (BC2M)’s critical work to end stigma and discrimination surrounding mental illness. Through their evidence-based, peer-to-peer high school and undergraduate programs and Public Service Announcements (PSAs), BC2M offers platforms to share, connect, and learn about mental health. Click here for more information.

Contact Us

info@jpfamilyfund.org

Please do not send unsolicited proposals. Thank you!

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