The Morton K. & Jane Blaustein Foundation

The wealth originates from the American Oil Company (AMOCO), founded by Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob Blaustein. Jacob Blaustein later merged AMOCO with Standard Oil of Indiana, and the combined entity became a major integrated oil company. BP ultimately acquired AMOCO in 1998. Morton Blaustein, Jacob's son, and his wife Jane established the foundation to deploy a portion of the family's wealth philanthropically.

It operates under the umbrella of the Blaustein Philanthropic Group, a collaborative of family foundations based in Baltimore. The most closely related entity is the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation, which shares office space, governance practices, and often co-funds initiatives. This structure allows the family to pool administrative resources and coordinate grantmaking across different fields of interest while maintaining separate legal endowments.

Yes. In addition to traditional grantmaking, the foundation reports a venture capital allocation. This typically functions through program-related investments or mission-related investments from the endowment, seeking to back for-profit companies, funds, or financial intermediaries whose work aligns with the foundation's programmatic goals in education, human rights, and environmental health.

The governing board of trustees makes all major decisions. Jeanne P. Blaustein serves as President and Trustee, working alongside Vice Presidents Susan M. Blaustein, Peter E. Bokor, and Alan Berlow. The board structure is tightly held by direct descendants of Jacob Blaustein, maintaining a concentrated family governance model rather than an independent professionalized committee.

The foundation funds both domestically in the United States and internationally. A significant portion of international grantmaking targets South Asia, with a particular emphasis on India, supporting programming for girls' education and reproductive health. Domestically, grants concentrate on the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly Baltimore, where the family has maintained a commercial and philanthropic presence for over a century.

It collaborates frequently through its membership in the Maryland Philanthropy Network and Philanthropy New York. Most joint work happens internally within the Blaustein Philanthropic Group, where it co-invests grants and potentially direct investments with the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and other family vehicles. This internal syndication allows the family to concentrate its financial weight on larger institutional-scale commitments.

Because the board remains controlled by the founding family, the foundation has demonstrated a willingness to fund advocacy and policy work in politically sensitive areas. For example, the foundation has been an explicit funder of reproductive rights and justice organizations, including legal advocacy groups. This posture benefits from the insulating effect of multigenerational family control, which allows leadership to accept controversy risk that professionalized, university-tethered, or corporate-philanthropy boards might avoid.