Robert D and Patricia E Kern Family Foundation
ActivePhilanthropy & VoluntarismFunds Individuals
About Robert D and Patricia E Kern Family Foundation
The Kern Family Foundation makes a small number of very large, strategic grants focused on reshaping education and professional training at scale — especially charter-school networks and university-based curricular/professional transformation. They also invest in targeted national initiatives in medical education and public humanities/film that align with their mission to influence practice and public narrative. Grants are multi-million-dollar, often repeat or multi-year commitments to organizations capable of network expansion or institutional embedding.
Focus Areas
Charter school network growth and program integration (e.g., character education, CTE)Classical/mission-driven K–12 network expansion (e.g., Great Hearts-style networks)Institutionalizing new curricula/practices in higher education (medical education transformation, embedding new disciplines at universities)Capacity-building and operational support for intermediary/philanthropic institutionsNational public humanities/media projects (documentary film promotion and outreach)
Who They Fund
K-12 students (including charter school students)
About Robert D and Patricia E Kern Family Foundation
A defining feature of The Robert D and Patricia E Kern Family Foundation Inc is its willingness to make very large grants to help reshape institutions rather than fund short-term projects. In 2025, it awarded $14.4 million to Charter Fund Inc for character and CTE integration, alongside $7.5 million to The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc for the Kern Institute’s national transformation network. Those two grants show the foundation’s pattern: it backs organizations that can embed new practices across schools, universities, and professional training systems. The foundation also supports education networks with scale. Greathearts Foundation received $6.5 million in 2025 for network expansion and programming support, while Arizona State University Foundation for a New American University received $6.245 million to embed entrepreneurial-minded education institutionally. Across the recent grants list, the same logic appears again and again: support is directed toward curriculum, faculty development, leadership formation, and network growth, with many awards aimed at long-term institutional change. Its portfolio also reaches into medical education, character formation, faith and vocation, and public humanities projects, including national film promotion and outreach. The overall picture is of a regular funder using large, strategic commitments to influence how schools, universities, and intermediary organizations operate.
What Robert D and Patricia E Kern Family Foundation Funds
In K-12 schooling, the foundation gives to network builders and school-support organizations. New Schools for Alabama received $905,000 for creating and operating charter schools in Alabama, and the University of Northern Iowa Foundation received $645,000 to develop a state network for school leaders and support character integration. Higher education is another major lane. Wake Forest University got $2.211 million for embedding entrepreneurial-minded education institutionally and post-doc support, while Belmont University received $1 million to develop a framework for forming leaders for flourishing. The foundation also funds character and leadership initiatives. Character Lab Inc received $692,900 for character-focused content and programming, and the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching received $620,122 for accelerating character education and development for leaders. A further thread runs through faith-and-work and theological formation. The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty received $1.6 million for faith, work, and economics programming and conferences, and Southeastern University Inc received $700,000 to grow APDP.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$66.5M
Total Assets
$837M
Total Revenue
$52.9M
Total Expenses
$97.3M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $25K and $358K, with a median of $111K.
25th Percentile
$25K
Median
$111K
75th Percentile
$358K
Geographic Reach
National33 states funded
About 11% of grants go to recipients in DC.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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