Overview
The Castle Rock Foundation (CRF) is part of the philanthropy of the Coors family, which owns the Coors Brewing Company. CRF's main goals are to promote free enterprise, a limited role for government, and protection of individual rights. It aims to "encourage personal responsibility and leadership, and uphold traditional American values." (1)
History, Origin, and Impact
Castle Rock Foundation is an outgrowth of the Adolph Coors Foundation, a family foundation established in October of 1975 and which has issued $118 million in grants to Colorado organizations since its inception. In 1993 the Adolph Coors Foundation allocated $36.6 million to establish Castle Rock Foundation. (2) The Adolph Coors Foundation has managed various family estates and trusts, some of which were restricted to philanthropy within the state of Colorado. The unrestricted funds of the Adolph Coors Foundation were transferred in 1993 to the new foundation, which has no geographical restrictions. (3)
The executive director of the CRF is Sally W. Rippey, and John W. Jackson is the national program adviser. Castle Rock is governed by its Board of Trustees: William K. Coors, Ambassador Holland Coors, Jeffrey Coors, Peter Coors, and Reverend Robert G. Windsor. (4)
The Coors family has multiple relations with right-wing organizations. Holland Coors, for example, is a board member of the Heritage Foundation and a trustee of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and Jeffrey Coors is the director of Free Congress Research and Education and a board member of the Independence Institute (5). CRF has given $1,948,760 to the Heritage Foundation, $200,000 to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, $1,050,000 to the Free Congress Foundation, and $285,000 to the Independence Institute. (2)
Since the 1970s the Coors family's support of right-wing causes and institutions has become widely known. Adolph Coors Sr. founded the brewing company in 1873, and a century later the Adolph Coors Jr. Trust created the Adolph Coors Foundation as a private family foundation. One hundred years after the founding of Coors Brewing Co. in Golden, Colorado, family patriarch Joseph Coors backed Paul Weyrich's plan to establish a new conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation. Later, Joseph Coors, who died in March 2003, also provided Weyrich with the seed money to create the Committee for the Survival of the Free Congress, now known simply as the Free Congress Foundation. A ten-year old boycott of Coors by the AFL-CIO greatly tarnished the Coors name as the campaign brought national attention to the overtly homophobic, racist, and anti-labor practices and statements of the company and its family owners. In an attempt to improve its deteriorating public image, the company began to fund minority groups and improve worker conditions. However, the family continued to fund right-wing causes. (5) According to researchers Russ Bellant and Chip Berlet, "The pattern of Coors family funding and activism stands in stark contrast to the mainstream image projected by the Coors Brewing Co., whose advertising and funding reach out to African-American, women's, and gay communities." (6)
It appears that the creation of the Castle Rock Foundation was an attempt to disassociate the Coors name from the family's right-wing funding. While the Adolph Coors Foundation funds mainstream and geographically targeted projects that help the company's public image, Castle Rock has continued the family tradition of funding groups like Heritage Foundation, Free Congress Foundation, and other organizations of the radical right. As the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy points out: "The two foundations have the same executive director and board of trustees, which is composed entirely of Coors family members." The foundation's deeply political character is evident in its practice of paying the membership fees to the Council for National Policy, with which seven Coors family members are associated.(5)
Funding
The CRF had $50,862,306 in assets in 2001, and from 1999-2001, the foundation gave $2,693,450 (5). During fiscal year 2002, the CRF awarded $2,630,800 to organizations and handled operating expenses of $102,595. By the end of that fiscal year, the market valuation of assets was at $40.962 million. (1)
According to MediaTransparency.org, the top 10 recipients of this funding, evidently from 1993 to 1999, have been the Heritage Foundation ($1,948,760), Hillsdale College ($1,525,750), Free Congress Foundation ($1,050,000), Johnson & Wales University ($1,000,000), Adolph Coors Medical Research Foundation ($1,000,000), John Wayne Cancer Institute ($800,000), Academy Research and Development Institute (580,000), Saint James School ($550,000), Boy Scouts of America Denver Area Council ($512,656), and the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts ($500,000). (2)
Castle Rock has provided grants to the following organizations: Mountain States Legal Foundation; American Legislative Exchange Council; American Battle Monuments Commission; Institute for Justice; Pacific Legal Foundation; Independence Institute; Center for the Study of Popular Culture; National Association of Scholars; Mount Vernon Ladies Association; Cornell University; Historic Rittenhouse Town; American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; A Christian Ministry in the National Parks; American Indian College Fund; Landmark Legal Foundation; Intercollegiate Studies Institute; Southeastern Legal Foundation; Proprietors of the Boston Athenaeum; Denver Foundation; Leadership Institute; College Fund UNCF; Independent Women's Forum; The Center for Individual Rights; Institute for American Values; United Negro College Fund; Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment; Marshall Area Community Center; Foundation for Teaching Economics; Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies; Congressional Medal of Honor Society; Media Research Center; Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy; Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation; National Center for Public Policy Research; Defenders of Property Rights; Political Economy Research Center; The Becket Fund; Children's Educational Opportunity Foundation America; Statistical Assessment Service; National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship; Western Journalism Center; Education & Research Institute; Mind/Body Medical Institute; Institute on Religion and Democracy; Cascade Policy Institute; Competitive Enterprise Institute; Equal Opportunity Foundation; George Mason University Foundation; Nevada Policy Research Institute; National Museum of Women in the Arts; Ethics and Public Policy Center; Manhattan Institute for Policy Research; Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation; Hudson Institute; American Studies Center; Cato Institute; Evergreen Freedom Foundation; President and Fellows of Harvard University; Institute on Religion and Public Life; Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation; National Fatherhood Initiative; Young America's Foundation; National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy; Promise Keepers; Denver Health and Hospitals Foundation; Global Futures; National Catholic Bioethics Center; Words Can Heal; Joseph Richey Hospice; National Center for Policy Analysis; Council for National Policy; Philanthropy Roundtable; Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge; Center for Community Interest; Center for Science, Technology and Political Thought; Center for the New West; National Alumni Forum; Madison Center for Educational Affairs; National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation; Ashiwi Awan Museum and Heritage Center; Investment Fund for Foundations; Action Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty; American Council of Trustees and Alumni; The Fund for American Studies; Greater Educational Opportunities Foundation; Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace; Washington Family Council; George Washington University; Institute of World Politics; State Policy Network; Independent Institute; Mineral Information Institute; Historical Society of Boston, MA; Palm Springs Desert Museum; American Academy for Liberal Education; Tax Foundation; Atlantic Legal Foundation; National Fund for the United States Botanic Garden; Sutherland Institute; Bill of Rights Institute; Cornerstone Community Partnerships; Jack Swigert Memorial Commission; Charles J. Connick Stained Glass Foundation; Students in Free Enterprise; American Academy of Achievement; Enough is Enough; Columbine High School Project; Buckeye Center for Public Policy Solutions; Colorado Outward Bound School; Student Leadership Institute; Defense Forum Foundation; Virginia Institute for Public Policy; Executive Leadership Foundation; Educational Research Analysts; Camp Saint Augustine; Youth Development Foundation; Friends of Montpelier; Colorado Public Expenditure Council; and the Westmoreland Scholar Foundation. (2)
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