Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation

About Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation

The Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation’s grantmaking shows a clear preference for long-term support in place-based social justice work, with one of its largest recent awards going to Movement Strategy Center for Return to the Heart Foundation. The foundation backs community-led organizations through general operating support, project operating support, pilot projects, and capacity building, and it also makes crisis-response grants and program-related investments. Its active programs cover affordable housing preservation, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, civic empowerment, and place-based community investments, with related efforts reaching Native and Indigenous communities, Black-led organizations, low-income renters, and disaster-affected populations. Recent grants also point to a recurring role for intermediaries and collaboratives, including Common Counsel Foundation for Native Voices Rising and Liberty Hill Foundation for Fund For Change. Other awards support re-entry, housing justice, and environmental justice organizing, suggesting a funder that mixes multi-year partnerships with targeted issue-based grants. The foundation’s stated mission is to invest in innovative solutions and community leaders to build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world in which all people thrive.

What Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation Funds

Affordable housing preservation is a visible part of the portfolio. In 2023, the foundation gave $125,000 to Innercity Struggle for Housing Justice for the Eastside of LA, and it also supported organizations working on tenant protections, housing finance innovations, and permanent affordability. Criminal justice reform appears through grants such as $100,000 to Youth Justice Coalition for general operating support and $100,000 to Anti-Recidivism Coalition for general operating support, aligning with the foundation’s emphasis on re-entry, policy reform, and recidivism reduction. Environmental justice is another core area: the Hazel M. Johnson Environmental Justice Award provides multi-year unrestricted support to BIPOC-led nonprofits, and the foundation also funded East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice with $125,000 in general operating support. Native and Indigenous community support shows up in Native Voices Rising, funded through Common Counsel Foundation.

How Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation Gives