Pershing Square Foundation
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About Pershing Square Foundation
The Pershing Square Foundation concentrates its funding into a small number of very large grants that target leadership development, metropolitan anti-poverty/immigrant opportunity work, emergency response funding channels, and select health research/capital campaigns. It funds elite institutions (e.g., the University of Oxford) alongside high-impact, NYC-focused intermediaries (e.g., Robin Hood) and philanthropic vehicles. Grants are purpose-driven (leadership center, immigrant opportunity fund, emergency assistance, ALS support) rather than broadly distributed across many small organizations.
Focus Areas
Global leadership development (Oxford Global Leadership Centre)Immigrant economic opportunity and anti-poverty programs in New York City (Pershing Square Immigrant Opportunity Fund with Robin Hood)Emergency assistance and disaster relief funding via donor-advised/charitable fundsALS research and capital campaign support (Target ALS)
Who They Fund
early-career scientists and young investigatorspatients with cancer and neurodegenerative diseasesinjured civilians in war zones
About Pershing Square Foundation
A defining feature of The Pershing Square Foundation is its use of large, purpose-specific grants to support research, leadership, and emergency response. One of its clearest patterns is backing multi-year scientific prizes and named initiatives alongside operating support for institutions that sit inside its strategic areas. In recent grants, the foundation gave $2,354,108 to the University of Oxford for the Oxford Global Leadership Centre, and $2,100,000 to Robin Hood Foundation for the Pershing Square Foundation Immigrant Opportunity Fund. Those awards sit next to major support for health and science, including $1,500,000 to Target ALS for general support of its mission and capital campaign. The foundation also funds vehicles that move quickly in crises, such as Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund – Fidelity DAF for emergency assistance programs. Its recent docket shows a mix of prizes, research projects, capital campaign support, and issue-focused intermediaries rather than broad, small-dollar grantmaking.
What Pershing Square Foundation Funds
The foundation’s science funding is centered on biomedical research prizes and projects. It gave $750,000 to The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard for a research project titled “Programmable Therapeutics: Building the Foundation for the Next Wave of Medicine,” and $400,000 to The Rockefeller University for research on stimulating synaptic protein degradation for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Cancer research is another recurring strand: the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai received $250,000 for the Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research. The foundation also supports neuroscience through the MIND Prize, with $250,000 grants to Cornell University, the University of California, Davis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Outside research, it backed Revive & Restore with $250,000 for its informed biobanking project, linking conservation to scientific infrastructure.
How Pershing Square Foundation Gives
Typical grants cluster tightly around six figures: the p25 is $150,000, the median is $200,000, and the p75 is $250,000. The recent-grants list also shows repeated support to the same organizations across multiple years, including University of Oxford, Robin Hood Foundation, Measures for Justice, and The Rockefeller University. That pattern suggests a mix of one-off awards and renewed commitments. The foundation is a regular funder and also makes program-related investments. It funds individuals as well as organizations, and its public grant profile includes both prizes and strategic grants. No public application portal is indicated in the provided data for its general grantmaking.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$10.9M
Total Assets
$414.6M
Total Revenue
$36.2M
Total Expenses
$25.7M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $150K and $250K, with a median of $200K.
25th Percentile
$150K
Median
$200K
75th Percentile
$250K
Geographic Reach
Regional13 states funded
About 60% of grants go to recipients in NY.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Pershing Square Foundation Funds
Top 3 recipient countries by grant volume for Pershing Square Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 166 | $44M | 97.7% |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 3 | $4.6M |
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