The Programs

From 2012 to 2023, the Environment Program significantly contributed to improving the lives of millions of Americans through close to $1 billion in grants to enable resilient communities. It did this by investing in organizations and networks that focused on energy, environmental health, environmental justice, and green infrastructure. The Environment Program emerged from an important insight by Barbara, who, after substantial investments in education by The Picower Foundation yielded limited success, declared, “What good is it if Jane can read if she can’t breathe?”

In 2012, Barbara tapped Dana Bourland to run the program. Dana had spent the previous decade at Enterprise Community Partners, the largest affordable housing and community development intermediary in the country. There, she led environmental strategy and pioneered what remains the nation’s only green building program created for the affordable-housing sector, the Green Communities Initiative. To provide guidance and insight from the field, Barbara also created an Environment Advisory Committee chaired by Harvard climate scientist Dan Schrag.

When the foundation created the Environment Program, it did so with a few clear parameters. Understanding that there were other funders working on federal climate policy, it wanted to focus on systems change that would make a meaningful long-term difference in people’s lives—particularly people living in cities and disinvested communities. It also understood that intermediary organizations that were trusted by communities would be important partners to assist in getting funding to the grassroots.

A key aspect of the program’s strategy was its integration with other JPB initiatives. By aligning with the foundation’s focus on poverty and health, the Environment Program sought to enable resilient communities that would directly improve health and well-being for people and the planet. This integrated approach was relatively uncommon, according to Ted Roosevelt IV, a member of the program’s advisory committee. “The environmental world generally didn’t focus on the connection between environment, health, and poverty,” he said.

JPB had the opportunity as a new funder to alter the trajectory of environmental philanthropy into communities often overlooked by foundations. The program sought to accomplish this goal by listening to, learning with, and partnering closely with people in the communities it was striving to support. Central to that commitment was an equally important commitment to being accountable to those communities instead of dictating to them. The team tried to work in ways that were accountable to disinvested communities, predominantly Indigenous and communities of color, with a growing awareness of the urgency to act much more specifically on climate change. “We knew,” reflected Dana, “that how we worked was going to be as important as what we funded.”

A key principle of the Environment Program’s approach was building relationships with its grantees. This strategy required staff to be responsive to what grantees needed when opportunities arose, such as large-scale public investments in energy and climate infrastructure. “The strength of our work lies in the trust we build,” said Yianice Hernandez, a senior program officer in the Environment Program. “When we’re in sync with grantees, we can move faster and enable them to make a bigger impact when opportunities arise.”

The Environment Program grew over time in terms of staffing, grantee partnerships, amount of spending, and recognition in the field. In 2022, Inside Philanthropy ranked JPB the 13th-largest environmental funder in the United States. JPB’s long-term investments have yielded significant results. Organizations supported by JPB were well-positioned to secure funding through the Inflation Reduction Act, were better prepared for extreme weather events, and demonstrated resilience and responsiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic. This success was recognized in 2023 when the program received the inaugural Risk-Taker Award from the Environmental Grantmakers Association in the category of Visionary Teams.

From 2012 to 2023, the Medical Research Program significantly advanced scientific research through over $250 million in grants targeting Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and Parkinson’s, and supporting The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT.

The foundation’s support for medical research carried over from its investments at The Picower Foundation, where its $50 million gift to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology established The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. The program has been managed since 2015 by Senior Advisor Kevin Lee, who had been executive director of the Lawrence Ellison Foundation as well as the chief scientific officer of the Grace Science Foundation.

The program is dedicated to enabling healthier, longer, and more productive lives through pioneering research on the brain and to finding cures or treatments for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes—advancing science that often lacks sufficient support from traditional funding sources. Unrelated to the Medical Research Program, as part of the Poverty Program, JPB supported scientific research to better understand the effects of adverse early life experiences on children.

The program puts a priority on collaboration and knowledge sharing—often across disciplines—aiming to help researchers connect in ways that advance scientific progress and develop effective treatments and health-promoting strategies that might otherwise go undiscovered. As part of this strategy, JPB supports collaborative research networks, providing funding for five to eight prominent scientists in each targeted disease area. These researchers meet multiple times annually to share insights and pursue joint research. This model aims to transform the prevention, treatment, and cure of major chronic illnesses.

In addition to its focus on chronic diseases, the program supports research on learning, memory, and cognitive processes at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. This research seeks to understand the mechanisms behind learning, memory, perception, attention, emotion, and consciousness.

JPB has played a key role in advancing medical research across various fields. Its support has led to new cell models for brain diseases and innovative stem cell treatments for conditions like diabetes and Parkinson’s. Researchers have made breakthroughs in understanding how inflammation impacts the brain and metabolic diseases. They have also uncovered new disease mechanisms involving aging cells, gut bacteria, and cellular degradation and recycling processes. Studies have revealed how exercise benefits brain health, as scientists explore decision-making, attention, and social behavior. JPB’s contributions extend to training the next generation of research leaders, ensuring continued progress in these vital areas of medical science.

From 2012 to 2023, the Poverty Program significantly improved the lives of millions of Americans through over $1 billion in grants targeting health equity, economic justice, and democracy.

When The JPB Foundation was launched, Barbara Picower was determined to continue the work she began at The Picower Foundation to help people living in poverty. She insisted on naming the program the Poverty Program, noting, “That’s what people are dealing with.”

Betsy Krebs joined the Poverty Program in 2014 and became vice president in 2016. Krebs brought with her decades of work in social justice. A lawyer by training, she had represented young people in court, then co-founded the Youth Advocacy Center to work closely with teens to help them advocate for themselves.

Betsy shared Barbara’s commitment to Americans living in poverty. As Betsy describes it, “We wanted to listen to people in communities and find ways to meet their needs.” The guiding principle of the program was that everyone in the U.S. deserves financial security, good health, and a voice in decisions that affect them, recognizing that millions of people are affected by poverty due to deep structural inequities beyond their control.

The program landed on a set of urgent issues that disproportionately affect people in poverty, and which it would update and refine over time—health equity, economic justice, and democracy. For each portfolio area, it funded groups that approached an issue using both distinct and overlapping strategies—demonstration projects that provided direct action or services, community organizing, litigation, policy development, research, fellowships, and narrative change.