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FUNDER PROFILEein: 84-1243301 Castle Rock FoundationFrom Axis of Ideology, NCRP 2004Adolph Coors Sr. founded the Coors Brewing Co. in 1873 in Golden, Colorado. Just over a century later, in 1975, the Adolph Coors Foundation was created as a private family foundation and initially was supported financially by the Adolph Coors Jr. Trust. Three further donations were made to the foundation from family members Gertrude Steele Coors and Janet Coors. While the trust money was designated for use within Colorado, the other assets were available for grantmaking outside of the state. In 1993, the Castle Rock Foundation was created from the unrestricted funds, receiving a $36,596,253 endowment. Now, the Adolph Coors Foundation focuses almost exclusively on projects and organizations within Colorado, while the Castle Rock Foundation provides grants to public policy and other organizations nationwide. The Coors family is well known for its conservative ideology and for its financial contributions to advance this ideology, both individually and through its company and foundations. In 1973, Joseph Coors backed Paul Weyrich, a champion of right-wing causes and later co-creator of the Moral Majority, when he decided to create a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., that eventually became the Heritage Foundation. Joseph Coors provided $250,000 in start-up funds. Later, when Weyrich left Heritage, Joseph Coors worked with him to create the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, a PAC supporting conservative candidates that later developed into the Free Congress Foundation (FCF). The Adolph Coors Foundation heavily funded the Heritage Foundation from its inception through the 1980s. The Castle Rock Foundation continues to provide substantial funding to the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation, contributing $1,948,760 and $1,050,000 respectively, between 1995 and 2002.187 Joseph Coors sat on the board of the Heritage Foundation until his death in March 2003, and Holland Coors has served on the board since 1998. Jeffrey Coors sits on the board of FCF, where he was chairman of the board for a number of years. Weyrich has referred to him as "one of the finest, most principled God-fearing people I have ever known."188 Joseph Coors also financially assisted Phyllis Schlafly's STOP ERA campaign and Bob Simonds' National Association of Christian Educators/Citizens for Excellence in Education, which "has worked with Christians and conservatives to restore academic excellence and traditional moral values to the public schools."189 Coors also backed Regent University (started by Pat Robertson), the Rutherford Institute, Morality in Media, the John Birch Society and the Nicaraguan contras. The Coors name was tarnished during a 10-year boycott instigated by the AFL-CIO in 1977. Since that time, the family and corporation have received condemnation from a variety of minority, gay and women's rights groups, environmental activists and student associations for their support of conservative organizations and their often overtly racist and homophobic comments. In response to the boycott and severe criticism, Coors began funding a variety of African-American and Latino organizations and even became the one of the first large companies to provide health benefits to domestic partners of gay employees in 1995. However, critics claim that these actions allowed the company to pose as progressive while the family and its foundation continued to fund conservative, often anti-gay, organizations and initiatives: "This strategy masked an ongoing funding pattern by the Coors family and foundation directly hostile to minorities, women and labor. The engine of that anti-minority effort is the free flow of cash to the establishment and maintenance of the Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, the Council for National Policy, and a variety of other Religious Right and far-right organizations."190 Russ Reliant and Chip Berlet quote Dr. Jean Hardisty of Political Research Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts: "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 the African-American, women's and gay communities."191 In fact, many argue that the establishment of the Castle Rock Foundation and its subsequent responsibility for the primary grantmaking to conservative organizations like Heritage and FCF, while the Coors Foundation (blatantly affiliated with the family) began funding less controversial projects, indicates a clear facade being created by the family. The two foundations have the same executive director and board of trustees, which is composed entirely of Coors family members. The family claims that the foundations and the Coors Brewing Co. are separate entities. It appears to many, however, that the family, the company and the foundations are one and the same and that the Castle Rock Foundation is "an attempt to separate the Coors name from the family's support of the radical right."192 Bruce Mirken quotes Jerry Sloan of Project Tocsin: "It is a snow job to remove the Coors name directly from grants to radical causes, smoke and mirrors."193 The mission of the Castle Rock Foundation is to "promote a better understanding of the free-enterprise system, preserve the principles upon which our democracy was founded to help ensure a limited role for government and the protection of individual rights as provided for in the Constitution, encourage personal responsibility, and leadership, and uphold traditional American values."194 Lou Kilzer (1998) calls Castle Rock "the Coors empire's chief public policy outreach." Along with Heritage and FCF, Hillsdale College receives substantial funding from the Castle Rock Foundation ($1,525,750 between 1995 and 2002).195 Jeffrey Coors sits on the board of Hillsdale College. The foundation also pays membership fees to the Council for National Policy, where seven Coors family members, including Holly, Jeffrey, Carin and Darden, all "attend meetings or are members," according to Jerry Sloan. Sloan also claims that the executive director of both family foundations, Linda Tafoya, as well as the directors of many of the foundations' grantees, are members of the secretive organization.196 Russ Bellant and Chip Berlet claim that "the Coors family is highly influential in shaping the activities of three organizational pillars of the New Right-the Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation and the Council for National Policy-that constitute an influential force in Washington, D.C. Involvement with these key groups provides the Coors family with a conservative political base. From this base, the family is connected to prominent activists in other New Right organizations, to groups on the Religious Right, and to allies in governmental agencies and in Congress."196 Other conservative policy organizations that have received considerable funding (i.e., $100,000 or more between 1995 and 2002) from the Castle Rock Foundation include many of those that receive funding from the other large conservative foundations. Conservative academic institutes and educational organizations funded include the National Association of Scholars, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Leadership Institute. Legal organizations that receive funding include the Institute for justice, the Federalist Society and the Center for Individual Rights. The foundation also provides financial assistance to the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation and the Landmark Legal Foundation, legal organizations that fight to safeguard individual liberties, free enterprise and property rights from government regulation and control. Conservative think tanks and advocacy institutes that receive assistance from the Castle Rock Foundation include the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, the American Enterprise Snstitute, FREE and the Pacific Research Institute. The foundation also funds the Independence Institute, the Political Economy Research Center, the Institute for American Values and Defenders of Property Rights. The Independence Institute "addresses a broad variety of public policy issues from a free-market, pro-freedom perspective"198 and works to devise private and community-based alternatives to government intervention. The institute publicizes its recommendations in papers and editorials and on television and holds conferences, seminars and forums for policymakers and the public. Jeffrey Coors sits on the board of the Independence Institute. The Political Economy Research Center uses free-market rules to address environmental issues. The Institute for American Values is "devoted to contributing intellectually to the renewal of marriage and family life and the sources of competence, character and citizenship."199 Finally, through litigation, education and legislation, Defenders of Property Rights seeks to protect individual property rights from infringement by the government. A number of these organizations have been criticized by environmental and gay rights groups as hostile to their causes. The foundation also funds the Media Research Center and the American Legislative Exchange Council. The Castle Rock Foundation was founded in 1993 with an endowment of $36,596,253 from the Adolph Coors Foundation. 1999 Assets are $67 million. Total giving in 1999 was $3 million.Officers, Directors From 1999 IRS 990:
3773 Cherry Creek N. Dr., Suite 955 (303) 388-1636 Footnotes187. http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=14. 188. Weyrich, Paul, "The Most Important Legacy of Joe Coors." Notable News Now. Free Congress Foundation. 2003. 189. http://www.nacecee.org/ceehome.htm. 190. "Adolph Coors Foundation," Buying a movement: Right-wing foundations and American politics. Washington,D.C.: People for the American Way. 1996. 191. Bellant, Russ & Berlet, Chip. "Still Backing the Hard Right: Coors Money Undermines Democracy." http://www.corporations.org/coors 192. Mirken, Bruce. "Coors and the Homophobes: The Adventure Continues." http://www.corporations.org/coors. 1997. 193. Ibid. 194. www.castlerockfoundation.org. 195. http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientsoffunder.php?funderID=14 196. "Questions for the Coors Company and the Translesbigay Community." Project Tocsin. http://www.rthoughtsrtree.org/tcnfredcrs.htm. 197. Bellant & Berlet, http://www.corporations.org/coors. 198. http://i2i.org. 199. http://www.americanvalues.org.
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OTHER LINKSCastle Rock foundation at Rightweb - IRC Online
Castle Rock foundation at Guidestar
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Recipients of Castle Rock Foundation grants, in descending order
