Bob Barker Foundation

About Bob Barker Foundation

Bob Barker Foundation Inc centers its giving on programs that help incarcerated people reenter society and stay out for life. The foundation’s latest grants show a consistent pattern of general operating support for organizations working on recidivism reduction, reentry, and related services. In 2025, it gave $25,000 to Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, for general operations, and the same amount to Hudson Link for Higher Education in Ossining, New York, also for general operation. Those awards sit alongside support for other reentry-focused organizations such as Men of Valor in Antioch, Tennessee; Bridges to Life in Houston, Texas; and Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin, California. The grant list also includes community-based groups in North Carolina, where the foundation awarded funds to organizations in Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Garner, and Buies Creek. Across the recent record, the emphasis is on practical program support rather than one-off projects, with recurring grants commonly directed to tax-exempt organizations serving incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people. The foundation’s stated mission aligns closely with that pattern: developing and supporting programs that help people successfully return to society and remain out of prison.

What Bob Barker Foundation Funds

A core theme in the foundation’s grantmaking is recidivism reduction through direct reentry services. It funded Jumpstart South Carolina in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for general operations, and Public Advocates in Community Re-entry (PACE) in Indianapolis, Indiana, for general operations as well. Education and higher education also appear as a support area, reflected in a grant to Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, for general operation and another to Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin, California, for general operation. The foundation also backs workforce-oriented reentry models: Edwins Leadership & Restaurant Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, received general operating support, fitting its combined education, training, and employment pathway. Community-based reentry ministries and alliance groups appear in the recent record too, including Reentry Alliance Pensacola Inc in Pensacola, Florida, and Step Up Ministry in Raleigh, North Carolina.

How Bob Barker Foundation Gives