NET WORTH: Unknown
SOURCE OF WEALTH: Pequot Capital Management
FUNDING AREAS: Education, Health, Jewish Life
OVERVIEW: Arthur Samberg, his wife, Rebecca, and family move their philanthropy through the Samberg Family Foundation. The Samberg foundation supports healthy and productive living for children and youth, families and communities via grantmaking in three areas: education, health, and Jewish life. The foundation has a strong web presence, but does not accept unsolicited proposals. The Sambergs also move some of their philanthropy through a low-profile vehicle, the Rebecca and Arthur Samberg Foundation, which focuses more locally in suburban New York.
BACKGROUND: Arthur Samberg received a B.S. from MIT and a master's degree from the aeronautics program at Stanford University. He also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. Before a long career in finance, Samberg was an aerospace engineer at Lockheed Martin, where he developed guidance and control technologies for missile systems. Samberg made partner at Weiss Peck & Greer. He went on to found and serve as CEO of the hedge fund Pequot Capital Management. Samberg is now owner of Hawkes Financial LLC, his family office.
ISSUES:
EDUCATION: The Samberg Family Foundation supports initiatives that help children and youth from low-income backgrounds thrive at the various stages in their lives. Grantmaking includes support of literacy programming for early readers, and extended learning and enrichment time for middle school students. Education grantees include 100Kin10, whose goal is to produce 100,000 excellent STEM teachers; Harlem RBI; Citizen Schools; and Harlem Children's Zone, where the couple's daughter Laura sits on the board of trustees. Harlem Children's Zone has received several million from the family.
Samberg has also been a strong supporter of his alma mater Columbia Business School, where he gave a $25 million gift toward the school’s new Manhattanville facilities. He also gave at least $35 million to the school last decade, and a $10 million gift created the Arthur J. Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence in his honor.
As well, Samberg has supported his undergraduate alma mater MIT, which recently named a new conference center after the couple. Much of the couple's work at the school has involved undergraduate scholarships.
HEALTH: The foundation's health grantmaking links health with poverty and includes support of areas like maternal and child health, mental health, and health education. Health grantees include Peer Health Exchange, Health Leads, and Nurse Family Partnership. Samberg and Rebecca, a few years ago, gave $25 million to NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital to create the Samberg Scholars in Children's Health. Samberg has served on the board of trustees of New York-Presbyterian since 2004.
JEWISH LIFE: The Sambergs, via their foundation, also support Jewish causes. Grantees include Birthright Israel Foundation, which has received at least $2.5 million from the couple and their foundation through the years; UJA Federation of New York, where Samberg served as senior chair of the Wall Street and Financial Services Division of UJA; U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; and AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps.
THE REBECCA AND ARTHUR SAMBERG FOUNDATION: Via this low-profile vehicle, Samberg and family mainly support local outfits in Westchester County like Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, Ossining Children's Center, Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic, and The Children's Village.
LOOKING FORWARD: Daughter Laura Samberg-Faino should be watched carefully in the coming years. She's executive director of the Samberg Family Foundation and serves on such boards as College Summit, Harlem Children’s Zone, and Big Tent Judaism.
CONTACT:
The Rebecca and Arthur Samberg Foundation does not provide a clear avenue for getting in touch with the family but below is an address:
The Rebecca and Arthur Samberg Foundation77 Bedford Rd. Katonah, NY 10536
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