UNDUE INFLUENCE

Trust for Mutual Understanding

Undue Influence by Ron Arnold

Trust for Mutual Understanding
730 Rockefeller Plaza, Room 5600
New York, NY 10112

Phone: 212-649-5600

FAX   (212)-632-3409
Website: www.tmuny.org  
E-MAIL  tmu@tmuny.org
EIN: 13-3212724
E
xempt since January 1984
EGA Member

Description: A private foundation established in 1984 by "an anonymous philanthropist" (probably David Rockefeller) in the Rockefeller Home Office and managed by the Rockefeller Trust Company to make grants for groups operating with and in the Soviet Union and subsequently the former Soviet Union and Newly Independent States, now mostly in countries in the same geographical area.

Problem: Funds cultural and anti-development organizations worldwide with emphasis on Asia and Eastern Europe.

Trust for Mutual Understanding Revenue and Expenses: Fiscal Year Ending December 31, 2000
  Revenue     Expenses
Interest on savings $12,237
Dividends (securities) $1,644,8415
Capital gain $6,817,645
Short-term capital gain $0
Special Events $0
Sales $0
Other $0
 
Grants paid $3,683,829
Administration $1,637,769
Other $0
Total Expenditures $5,321,598
   
Total Assets $80,523,882
Total Revenue $1,130,956   NET GAIN/LOSS $6,817,645
Trust for Mutual Understanding Trustees
Richard S. Lanier, Director Elizabeth J. McCormick
Donal C. O'Brien  

Background:
The Trust for Mutual Understanding - probable donor:

David Rockefeller.
One of the five Rockefeller Brothers, sons of John S. Rockefeller and grandsons of John D. Rockefeller. The likelihood that someone other than a Rockefeller established the Trust for Mutual Understanding is slight, given that it is located in the Rockefeller Family Office and managed by the Rockefeller Trust Company, with its major endowment shares in Rockefeller Special Situations LLC, Rockefeller Alternative Strategies Fund LP, and Rockefeller Venture Opportunities LP. David showed most interest in Russia and other emphases of TMU.

Trustees:

Richard S. Lanier: Director and member of the board. President and member of the board of the Asian Cultural Council.  Board member of the Japan Society in New York.  Formerly Director, Asian Cultural Program of the JDR 3rd Fund. Extensive experience with regional cultural issues in Asia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. Received a B.A. from Tulane University and an M.A. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University

Trustee, Elizabeth J. McCormack. President, Manhattanville College, Purchase, N.Y., 1966 to 1974. Former trustee, Aspen Institute. Director, Blanchette Rockefeller Neurological Institute. Board of Managers, emeritus, Swarthmore College. Life trustee, Cambridge College. Associate, Rockefeller Family & Associates.

 

Trustee, Donal C. O'Brien. Retired senior partner, law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy in New YorkCommissioner, Connecticut State Board of Fisheries and Game for 25 years (by appointment of three Connecticut Governors). Former chairman, Connecticut Council of Environmental Quality. Board of Directors, National Audubon Society, Waterfowl Research Foundation, American Bird Conservancy, Jackson Hole Preserve, Inc., Atlantic Flyway Council, Council Member, Save-the-Redwoods League. Former Vice-Chairman, Board of Governors, The Nature Conservancy. Former President, International Council for Bird Preservation. Chairman Emeritus, Quebec-Labrador Foundation.

Sample environmental grants given by Trust for Mutual Understanding in 2002:

Academy of Natural Sciences
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
$30,000

to support the exchange of environmental specialists from Mongolia and the United States participating in the Mongolian Long-Term Ecological Research project at Lake Hovsgol in 2002.

Alaska Marine Conservation Council
Anchorage, Alaska
11,000

to enable an indigenous leader and an environmentalist from Russia to participate in the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council Meeting in Unalaska in summer 2002.

Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
Schenectady, New York
30,000

to enable American cultural and environmental specialists and representatives of native communities in the Adirondacks to travel to Russia and Mongolia in spring 2003 as part of the Russian-American-Mongolian exchange program entitled Beyond the Boundaries.

Atlantic States Legal Foundation
Syracuse, New York
40,000

to enable American specialists in nutrient reduction techniques to travel to Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine in 2003 in connection with ASLF's training program entitled Black Sea Recovery Project: NGO Technical Facilitation Program.

Baikal Watch
Peshastin, Washington
4,200

to support international travel and related expenses associated with the Russian-American exchange component of the Lake Baikal Eco-tourism Project in 2002.

Brushy Fork Institute
Berea, Kentucky
20,000

to enable American specialists to travel to the Russian Far East to conduct sustainable development workshops for indigenous communities in summer 2002.

Center for Democracy
Washington, D.C.
35,000

to support international travel and related expenses of Russian environmental specialists in a conference co-organized with the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow entitled The Health of the Environment at the White Oak Plantation in Jacksonville, Florida, in summer 2003.

Denver Zoological Foundation
Denver, Colorado
5,700

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 of scientists from the United States participating in the Endangered Wild Bactrian Camel Conservation Project in Mongolia.

Earth Day Network
Washington, D.C.
30,000

to enable environmentalists from Eastern and Central Europe to participate in Earth Day Network's fellowship program in the United States in 2002-2003.

Earth Island Institute
San Francisco, California
35,000

to support the international exchange component in 2003 of the Center for Safe Energy's Sustainable Energy Project in Russia and Ukraine.

ECOLOGIA
Middlebury, Vermont
17,000

to enable representatives of ECOLOGIA from the United States and Russia to participate in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002.

The Ecology Center
Missoula, Montana
40,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2003 in conjunction with exchange programs designed to increase the capacity of organizations in Russia to use geographic information systems to monitor and assess environmental issues.

Environmental Defense
New York, New York
25,000

to enable American energy specialists to travel to Moscow in fall 2002 in connection with a project entitled Business Workshop on Climate Change and New Environmental Markets.

Environmental Health Network
Washington, D.C.
30,000

to support international travel between the United States and the Caspian region in 2003 in connection with the program entitled Developing and Strengthening Public Voices in the Call for Corporate Responsibility: Empowerment Workshops on the CPC Pipeline organized by Crude Accountability, an organization that focuses on oil and gas related environmental health and justice issues in the Caspian basin.

Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
Eugene, Oregon
14,000

to enable environmental lawyers from the Czech Republic, Russia, the Slovak Republic, and Ukraine to participate in fellowship programs in the United States and to attend E-LAW's Annual International Meeting and the 21st Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in 2003.

The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Washington, D.C.
30,000

to provide renewed support for international travel by Central European and American specialists participating in activities of the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe in 2002-2003.

Global Forest Watch
Washington, D.C.
30,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 of Russian and American environmental scientists participating in an exchange project to map boreal forests in Russia.

Global Green U.S.A.
Santa Monica, California
25,000

to support international travel and related expenses in fall 2002 and spring 2003 of Russian-American exchanges associated with the Legacy Program: Building Public Participation in Russian and American Decision Making for Toxic Waste Clean-up and Environmentally Responsible Chemical Weapons Destruction.

Government Accountability Project
Washington, D.C.
15,000

to support Russian-American exchanges in 2003 associated with GAP's program entitled Confronting the Legacies of Nuclear Weapons: Russia Project of Mutual Support and Exchange.

Greenpeace
Washington, D.C.
22,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 for American participants in a project entitled Discover Lake Baikal: Next Steps in Developing an Eco-Tourism Industry.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Minneapolis, Minnesota
20,000

to enable American environmental specialists to participate in a workshop entitled The Role of Biodiversity Conservation in the Transition to Rural Sustainability in Krakow in fall 2002 and to attend a follow-up meeting in Poland in winter 2003.

Institute for Sustainable Communities
Montpelier, Vermont
40,000

to enable representatives of NGOs and government officials in Romania to visit the United States in connection with ISC's Sustainable Rural Development in Romania program in fall 2002 (10,000); and to allow grassroots activists from the Russian Far East to undertake a study tour of the state of Washington and to enable environmental experts from the United States to participate in ISC's Community Action Conference in Macedonia in spring 2003 (30,000).

International Crane Foundation
Baraboo, Wisconsin
25,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 of Russian and American representatives of the Foundation and of Russia's Crane Working Group of Eurasia.

ISAR
Washington, D.C.
75,000

to support international travel and related expenses of environmental activists from Russia, Georgia, and the United States participating in a project entitled Educating for Change: Environmental Exchange and the Caspian Basin in 2002-2003.

The Nature Conservancy
New York, New York
10,000

to enable a specialist from the Conservancy to discuss environmental issues and priorities with government officials and scientists in Mongolia in fall 2002.

New York Botanical Garden
Bronx, New York
40,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 associated with a collaborative training program conducted jointly with the Georgian Academy of Sciences in Tblisi.

Northern Forum
Anchorage, Alaska
30,000

to enable wildlife specialists from Russia to travel to Alaska in summer 2002 for the Brown Bear Management Workshop organized by the Northern Forum.

Pacific Environment
Oakland, California
75,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002-2003 associated with exchange programs designed to promote effective citizen participation in environmental protection activities in Siberia and the Russian Far East involving logging, biodiversity, marine conservation, and oil and gas exploration.

Peregrine Fund
Boise, Idaho
20,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002-2003 associated with a training program at Boise State University and at the Raptor Research Center of the United States Geological Survey for a raptor specialist from Mongolia.

Quebec-Labrador Foundation
Ipswich, Massachusetts
30,000

to support international travel and related expenses of exchange projects developed as part of QLF's Central European Stewardship Program in Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine in 2002-2004.

Rails to Trails Conservancy
Washington, D.C.
25,000

to support international travel and related expenses of Eastern and Central European participants in RTC's international conference TrailLink 2003: Designing for the Future in Providence, Rhode Island, in summer 2003.

Ramapo College
Mahwah, New Jersey
40,000

to support the international exchange component in 2002 of a project entitled Empowering Russian and American NGOs to Address Issues of Future Sustainability.

Sacred Earth Network
Amherst, Massachusetts
50,000

to support the international exchange component in 2003 of SEN's Russian Environmental Partnership Program focusing on the Altai region of Siberia.

Tahoe-Baikal Institute
South Lake Tahoe, California
20,000

to support international travel and related expenses in 2002 associated with the Russian-American exchange component of the Tahoe-Baikal Institute Summer Program and of the Executive Director Exchange.

University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station
Polson, Montana
35,000

to support research in Kamchatka by American salmon specialists in fall 2002 as part of the Kamchatka Wild Salmon Sanctuary Project.

Wild Salmon Center
Portland, Oregon
35,000

to enable Russian and American scientists, environmentalists, and policy makers to attend the North Pacific Salmon Protected Areas Workshop in Khabarovsk in spring 2003.

Woods Hole Research Center
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
30,000

to enable environmental scientists and specialists from Russia to participate in the Center's Russian Visiting Scholars Program in 2003.

Total of Environmental Grants, 2002:  $1,088,900

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