Kolatch Family Foundation

Kolatch Family Foundation

Founded in 1998 by the family of Alfred J. Kolatch, the foundation draws its capital from the success of Jonathan David Publishers, a firm known for publishing popular books on Judaic life and reference. The foundation itself is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity, with grant-making focused on Education, Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking, and Human Services. Geographic reach concentrates on New York, New Jersey, and Ohio, aligning with the Kolatch family's personal and professional footprint. Jonathan L. Kolatch and his wife Mindy S. Kolatch serve as trustees, extending the family's influence from publishing into a diversified investment and giving operation. The foundation's deployment model is hybrid and unusually structured for a family foundation, blending traditional program-related grant-making with a dedicated venture capital allocation. Public records show the foundation engages across multiple venture capital strategies, indirectly accessing technology and growth-stage companies through fund commitments and direct co-investments. The hedge fund and private equity portfolio is managed alongside a corporate bond portfolio, providing liquidity and downside protection that underpins the foundation's perpetual giving capacity. The Kolatch family's broader investment ecosystem includes two sons, Noah and Joseph Kolatch, who are principals at Jasper Lake LLC, a separate investment entity, indicating a tradition of segregated, specialized management across the family's interests. The foundation's asset base is estimated at roughly $102 million, placing it in the mid-sized private foundation category. The operating hub remains a residential office on Walnut Street in Englewood, with an additional family asset at 21 West 74th Street in Manhattan. The Kolatches are deeply embedded in the New York philanthropic and Jewish communal networks: Jonathan is an alumnus and donor to Columbia University and the Columbia Club of New York, while Mindy and Jonathan jointly belong to the UJA-Federation Ambassador's Round Table, a cohort of donors contributing $50,000 or more annually. September 2023: The foundation continued its pattern of grant-making to New York and New Jersey based educational and human services organizations, consistent with its historic mandate. The foundation's structural differentiator is its bifurcated approach to mission and market returns. Rather than siloing philanthropy from investments, the Kolatch Family Foundation runs a grant-making program alongside a venture capital portfolio, overseen by the same trustees. This architecture allows the foundation to use market-rate returns from its venture and hedge fund sleeves to sustain and potentially grow its charitable disbursement capacity, while the family's adjacent entities—Redwood Capital Management run by Jonathan Kolatch and Jasper Lake LLC run by the next generation—create a professionalized, multi-layered system for preserving and deploying publishing wealth.